Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2019 #175CJF was a thirteen year old boy who suffered very serious neurological damage at birth. He was initially cared for by his mother, KJF, but she had also suffered complications as a result of CJF’s birth, so he ended up being cared for by a foster parent, LR under a Special Guardianship order. LR passed away in 2013, and the Special Guardianship order was transferred to LR’s daughter, EH, and her husband, AH. CJF’s father, BJF, had denied his paternity, was not named on his birth certificate, and had played no role in CJF’s life.
Before she died, LR brought a claim against the NHS T...
Denzil Lush makes the case for the return of substituted judgment ‘Exercising substituted judgment – whereby I sought to stand in the testator‘s shoes and authorise the execution of the will that they would make, if they had testamentary capacity – seemed a more realistic, relevant and reverential process than my experiences under the Mental …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2016 #162This was an appeal of an order allowing an applicant (I) for an order authorising her to execute a statutory will to be released from the obligation to serve the papers on someone entitled to a half share of the estate on intestacy and who would be disinherited if the statutory will was executed.
D was 30 and lived with his mother, I. D had cerebral palsy resulting from complications at birth and had been awarded damages of £3.1m in an action for clinical negligence. I was D’s deputy for property and affairs.
D’s father (F) had no contact with D for over 20 ye...
Re Gladys Meek [2014] has lessons on safeguarding the mentally incapable from loss. Sam Chandler analyses the case. ‘The judge considered that it could not be in Mrs Meek’s best interests to require what was left of her resources to be expended on litigation to remedy the deputies’ default when a straightforward alternative was available.’ …
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Sharon Kenchington finds that NT v FS sets out useful guiding principles on determining ‘best interests’, in a rare reported case ‘Any decision made on behalf of the individual for whom the statutory will is being made must be in their best interests. It is important to recognise that this is not the same as …
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Michael O’Sullivan reviews the case of Re JC [2012], which clarifies the current position with statutory wills and adoption The effect in law of an adoption is that the adopted child ceases to be regarded as the child of their natural parents and becomes, in the eyes of the law, the child of the adopters. …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2012 #122JC had four biological children: A, B, C and D. A was born in 1942 to a 15-year old mother. He was subsequently fostered, but throughout his life always understood JC to be his father and in the forty years preceding trial had worked and been in regular contact with him. JC denied parentage of A, but paternity was conclusively established by a court authorised DNA test. B and C were born in wedlock, in 1953 and 1955 respectively. However, they first had contact with their father in or around 2006/7. Their relationships remained strained, C in particular refusing to attend the hearing as ...
