Nahajec v Fowle [2017] WTLR 1071
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2017 #169By a will dated 7 July 2015 Stanley Nahajec (‘deceased’) left the whole of his estate valued at £265,710 to the defendant whom he appointed as sole executor. The deceased died on 19 July 2015 and a grant of probate to the defendant was issued on 15 October 2015. The claimant, who was one of three adult children of the deceased, brought a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (‘Act’) on 12 April 2016. One of her half siblings, Mark Nahajec, similarly made a claim under the act which was settled by a payment of £22,000 though his circumstances differed ...
Ilott v The Blue Cross & ors [2017] WTLR 533
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2017 #168The testatrix (T) died in 2004 leaving an adult daughter (C) from whom she had been estranged for 26 years. C had left home aged 17 to live with her boyfriend (B), of whom T disapproved. B later became C’s husband and they had five children. At the time of T’s death, C and her family lived in straitened financial circumstances: they lived in a house rented from a housing association, were reliant on benefits save for the husband’s intermittent work as a supporting actor and could not afford new household equipment or family holidays.
During the lifelong estrangement there had been...
Lewis v Warner [2016] EWHC 1787 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2016 #163A died on 6 May 2014. A reconstituted will admitted to probate left A’s only child (L) her entire estate comprising principally of her home (the property). A had lived in the property with her partner (S) for almost 20 years. S continued to live there after A died.
L, as executrix of A’s estate, issued a claim for possession of the property, damages for trespass and mesne profits against S. S issued an application under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. Both claims were heard before Recorder Christopher Gardner QC.
There was no real dispute as ...
Ilott v Mitson [2015] EWCA Civ 797
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2015 # 153The appeal concerned the quantification of an award for maintenance pursuant to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act). Section 1 of the 1975 Act confers the right on, among others, a child of the deceased to apply for an order if the will of the deceased or the intestacy rules did not make reasonable provision for that person. The provision was limited to awards of maintenance.
The appellant, who was an adult, was the only child of the deceased and was raised by the deceased, her father having died about t...
Bahouse & anr v Negus [2008] EWCA Civ 1002
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2012 #122Henry Bahouse (D) died on 27 March 2005 leaving an estate of approximately £2.2m in including a flat worth approximately £400,000. He had been married twice before and there was a son of his first marriage, Gordon (G), the residuary legatee under D’s will of 24 January 1996 and one of the executors seeking permission to appeal the decision of the lower court. Cyd Negus (C) was D’s cohabitee. No provision was made for her in the will and she made various claims against the estate. In the High Court she was awarded maintenance under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act...
WF v HF [2012] EWHC 438 (Fam)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2012 #121H and W married in December 1993 when W was 32 and H was 62. They have three children aged between 17 and 12. H’s first wife died and he had four children, (the elder children) from that marriage – all now adults aged over 35. His second marriage ended in divorce, but he had no continuing financial ties to his second wife. W had not been married before. Her limited assets, £152,000, the net sale proceeds of her flat, had been invested in an investment portfolio supplemented by contributions from H (including a transfer of shares worth £2.477m). H was the chairman of a com...