Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2024 #194On 6 June 2017, Ms Leeson died in Denmark. Her husband, the defendant, was prosecuted and ultimately acquitted of her murder. After such acquittal, civil proceedings were issued alleging inter alia that the defendant unlawfully killed Ms Leeson and the inquest proceedings resumed. In the civil proceedings, the parties were ordered to and did produce a schedule of agreed facts. Such schedule was based on the disclosure in the civil proceedings, including third-party disclosure from the police. The claimants’ solicitors acting in the inquest proceedings asked for permission that s...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2022 #188William Reid (the deceased) died on 20 March 2018. He left a will dated 20 December 2004 and codicil dated 8 February 2012 (together the will), which appointed the claimants, Nicholas Parsons and Mark Hill (respectively the deceased’s solicitor and land agent), as executors and trustees, and left the residuary estate on discretionary trusts for classes including his children and grandchildren. The defendants, Stephen Reid and Judith Shaw, were the deceased’s children. The deceased also left a letter of wishes which expressed the wish that payments be made to Stephen reflecting various mo...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2021 #184The parties were siblings. The application concerned the estate of their mother, PF. PF had divorced from the parties’ father in 1980, after which PF had continued to live in a five-bed council property (the Property) with the children until they grew up. In 2004, PF acquired the freehold for £192,000. At some point, PF adopted three other children.
In around 2009 (on the defendant’s (D’s) evidence), D moved PF out of the Property and into one of D’s properties. According to the claimants’ evidence, PF was already showing signs of paranoia, and in 2015 D was taken to court by a ne...
Henry Venables and Honor Giles consider the approach to an application for the disclosure of FDR appointment documents for use in civil proceedings and the limited circumstances in which such disclosure may be permitted An FDR appointment is a compulsory hearing that the parties must personally attend. The obligation is on the parties to hold …
Continue reading "Disclosure: Behind closed doors"
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William Moffett examines when trust information should be disclosed to beneficiaries and the importance of holding trustees to account ‘Beneficiaries with fixed interests, as distinct from discretionary beneficiaries, can reasonably expect disclosure to be made to them by trustees, or to receive the assistance of the court in obtaining disclosure if it is refused to …
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Julian Copeman, Anna Pertoldi and Maura McIntosh review a significant Court of Appeal judgment ‘In the Court of Appeal’s view, the whole subtext of the relationship between ENRC and the SFO was the possibility, if not the likelihood, of prosecution if the self-reporting process did not result in a settlement.’ On 5 September 2018 the …
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Marilyn Bell provides a recap on the duty of financial disclosure, and the remedies available to combat incomplete disclosure ‘The court will look at the facts at the time the order was made, not with the benefit of hindsight.’ The parties to a divorce may provide financial disclosure voluntarily, or as part of court proceedings. …
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Richard Farnhill resumes his assessment of the current law of privilege ‘Cotton LJ divides agents into two camps: those responsible for obtaining legal advice and all the rest. Only communications between the lawyer and the former camp are protected. There are significant issues with that approach.’ In the first part of this article, I examined …
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The Court of Appeal has provided beneficiaries with an alternative avenue for seeking disclosure against a trustee. Sophie Holcombe explains ‘The Court of Appeal expressly stated that it would not be correct to refuse to exercise the court‘s discretion to order compliance “because this disclosure could not be obtained from the trustees under the governing …
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Martin Cox reports on pre-litigation access to insurers and their policies ‘Why make directions and provide significant cost budgets relating to points of quantum issues that may prove irrelevant because the uninsured or under-insured opponent cannot meet the judgment subsequently made?‘ In the recent High Court decision of Peel Port Shareholder Finance Company Ltd v …
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