Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2022 #187W was the founder of WBL, an internationally renowned publisher of children’s books. In 1989 W instructed solicitors to create an employee trust (WBET) for WBL and transferred 51% of the WBL shares into WBET. The remainder of the shares were divided amongst family trusts established by W.
W died in 1991 and the shares in WBL held by the family trusts were distributed to employees and officers of WBL through a qualifying employee share ownership trust and a share incentive plan. Some of those shares were acquired from employees by the WBL Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP).
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Sarah Wood-Heath highlights the value of pre-conception agreements and the weight that will be given to such agreements by the courts The real benefit of preparing a pre-conception agreement is the value it holds in ensuring that all involved are aware of each other’s legal status, rights and responsibilities in advance of conception. Choosing to …
Continue reading "Children: Forewarned is forearmed"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2019 #174The three adult children of a Mr Lomax brought a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 against Ms Greenslade, the sole executor and beneficiary of Mr Lomax’s estate.
At trial HHJ Bailey concluded that the estate, which comprised a single property in London valued at £699,000, failed to make reasonable provision for the three children. He decided that Ms Greenslade should receive £69,000, being the sum of £20,000 which the deceased intended to give her under a draft will that was never executed, and the sum of £49,000 to cover the costs...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2017 #167JS, a 14-year-old, terminally ill girl wanted to pursue cryonic preservation: the speculative and controversial scientific theory of freezing a dead body in the hope that resuscitation and a cure may be possible in the distant future. JS’s parents disagreed about what should happen.
JS’s parents were divorced. For most of JS’s life she had lived with her mother (M) and had no face-to-face contact with her father (F), who was also suffering from cancer, since 2008. M and F had a very bad relationship. M supported JS’s wishes.
At the start of proceedin...
Susan Reed asks whether the lessons of the Cleveland inquiry have still not been learned ‘The professional failures of the various agencies involved with the family in AS v TH meant that the children were not only left in a situation where one parent was permitted to persist in conduct that was harmful to their …
Continue reading "Children: History repeated"
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Josh McEvoy suggests that long-established principles regarding children giving evidence may at long last be followed by the courts ‘In principle, the approach to a child giving evidence in private children law proceedings should be the same as in public children care proceedings.’The right of a child to be heard within family law proceedings has …
Continue reading "Children: Seen but not heard?"
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Che Meakins sets out the courts’ approach to children’s evidence and when a child should be joined as a party to proceedings ‘The court must weigh the advantage that a child’s evidence may have in determining the truth against the harm that the giving of evidence might do that child or any other child.’ In …
Continue reading "Children: Children’s voices"
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Jemma Thomas and Nancy Khawam set out the courts’ approach to children’s wishes and feelings, and the weight to be attached to their views ‘The Convention does not stipulate an age below which a child cannot have attained an age and degree of maturity at which it is appropriate to take account of its views …
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Emily Watson provides clarification on when EU children cases can be dealt with in England and Wales ‘The mother was “proroguing jurisdiction”, ie agreeing that the Spanish court could exercise jurisdiction despite the English court having general territorial jurisdiction.’The case of Re S (A Child) [2013] was heard by Cobb J and dealt with an …
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Olivia Checa-Dover and Deborah Smithies assesses the varying rights to be balanced when considering witness anonymity ‘In the Supreme Court’s view, there is an inherent value in disclosure, regardless of whether the evidence can be tested in cross-examination’ From time to time, in cases involving residence and contact arrangements for children, an allegation is made …
Continue reading "Children: The limits of confidence"
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