The deceased died on 21 June 2010. His will, dated 6 March 1998, gave a life interest in the matrimonial home to his second wife, with remainders to the claimant and his brother, who were children of the deceased’s first marriage. A codicil, dated 26 December 2002, replaced the life interest with an absolute gift to the second wife. The deceased’s second wife obtained probate, relying on a copy of the codicil as the original could not be found, and administered the estate. The second wife made a will by which 70% of her residuary estate went to her sister, and 30% to the claimant’s three...
This was an appeal against the decision of the president of the Family Division (PFD) to seal for 90 years the will of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to publish a list of 33 sealed wills of deceased members of the Royal Family, and to seal those 33 wills for 90 years (Re Will of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh [2021]).
At the start of the original hearing, the PFD directed that the hearing should take place in private, having only heard submissions from Prince Philip’s executor and the Attorney General (AG), but that the judgment should be made public....
This was an application to admit an altered will to probate in its current condition. The testatrix (T) died in May 2017. Her last will and testament was a homemade pre-printed will executed in May 2005. The will had a number of alterations and the probate office refused to admit it to probate without further evidence. T’s sister therefore applied ex parte for the will to be admitted to probate, and for letters of administration with the will annexed. The will was witnessed but one of the witnesses had since died and the other was no longer of sound mind so could not give eviden...
This was a probate claim by the testator’s children (minors with their mother, the testator’s ex-wife, as litigation friend). The first defendant (who was the only active defendant) was the testator’s new partner.
The claimants sought to propound a will from 2009. The first defendant sought to propound a will from 2018. The first defendant claimed that the 2018 will had been signed by the testator on 27 March 2018 with the intention of giving effect to it as a will, and that he had acknowledged his signature in the presence of witnesses who attested and signed the document in the ...
Continue reading "Probate: An unusual occurrence"
The claimant brought a claim to propound an alleged lost will of her late father (the 2017 will) against her sister (the first defendant) and her elder brother (the second defendant). The defendants alleged that the 2017 will, which was propounded on the basis of what was claimed to be a photocopy of it, was a forgery and that consequently the deceased died intestate. Expert evidence as to the genuineness of the alleged signature of the deceased to the 2017 will was inconclusive. The alleged witnesses to the 2017 will gave evidence.
The second defendant counterclaimed for a declar...
The claimant was the daughter of the deceased. The deceased had made a will dated 15 September 2017 of which the residuary beneficiary was D1, a friend of the deceased. A letter of intent stated that the claimant was not to benefit. The claimant, relying on medical evidence which included a poor score in a cognitive impairment screening test and a letter from the deceased’s GP opining that the deceased had likely suffered from dementia for a number of years before executing the 2017 will, challenged the 2017 will on the basis of a lack of testamentary capacity due to memory issues, and D...
This was an application by the executor of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for an order that his will be sealed up and that no copy of the will should be made for the record or kept on the court file, and for a direction to exclude the value of the estate from the grant of probate. The Attorney General was the sole defendant whose role it was to represent the public interest. The Attorney General strongly supported the application.
Applications to seal the wills of senior members of the Royal Family had been made for over a century. It appeared that they were always hear...
Continue reading "Probate: Pride and prejudice"
Continue reading "Probate: In at the deep end"