P v P [2015] EWCA Civ 447

July/August 2015 #151

A husband and wife met in 1999 and married in 2003. They had one child together, of primary school age at the time of the proceedings. In 2005 the husband and wife moved into a farmhouse owned by the husband’s parents. In 2009 the husband’s parents settled the farmhouse on a discretionary trust for the benefit of their children and remoter descendants. Subject to the power to appoint the capital and income to the discretionary beneficiaries, the farmhouse was held on trust to pay the income to the husband for life, and it was declared that the making of any land comprised within the trus...

Public Guardian v SR & NC [2015] EWCOP 32 (Fam)

July/August 2015 #151

MC was born on 8 October 1937. Her husband died in 2004. She had two children: a son (NC) and a daughter (SR) aged 54 and 49 respectively.

On 12 June 2009, MC executed a lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property and affairs appointing NC and SR jointly and severally as her attorneys. The LPA was registered on 24 September 2009.

In October 2011, MC made a will leaving 95% of her estate to SR and the remaining 5% to NC. In March 2013, SR placed MC’s house on the market. NC suspected that SR was mismanaging MC’s affairs and on 22 April 2013 entered a restriction...

Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Limited & ors [2014] UKSC 52

July/August 2015 #151

The appeal arose from one of what were originally ten test cases in which the defendant home owners (the vendors) were persuaded to sell their properties to purchasers (the purchasers) who promised the vendors the right to remain in their homes after the sale. The purchasers bought the homes with the assistance of mortgages from lenders (the lenders), who were not given notice of the promises to the vendors. Neither the rights of occupation promised by the purchasers to the vendors nor the tenancies granted by the purchasers were permitted by the lenders’ mortgage. Exchange of contracts ...

Seddon & ors v HMRC [2015] UKFTT 140

July/August 2015 #151

The appellants were trustees of a discretionary settlement settled in 1999. The settlement’s original assets were five £1 ordinary shares in a limited company. In 2000 the settlement received a scrip dividend of preference shares in the company. The preference shares were sold by the trustees two days after their receipt. Their value was £1,382,750. Some nine years later and a few days before the settlement’s ten year anniversary the trustees made a distribution worth £1,260,361 to certain beneficiaries.

The principal issues concerning were:

1. Whether the scrip d...

The Human Dignity Trust v The Charity Commission For England and Wales CA/2013/0013

June 2015 #150

The Human Dignity Trust (HDT) is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 16 December 2010. It was established to support people whose human rights were violated by the criminalisation of private, adult, consensual homosexual conduct, including by assisting them and their lawyers to bring litigation in domestic courts and tribunals, or against a state before international courts and tribunals. Its objects were to promote and protect human rights throughout the world, including the rights to human dignity and to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the ...

Julia Lomas v AK (Gift Application) [2014] EWCOP B11

June 2015 #150

This was an application by the deputy of an 11 year-old boy (AK) for a gift of £150,000 to be made by him to his parents from the damages awarded to AK under a settlement of a clinical negligence claim brought by his mother acting as his litigation friend against the local NHS Trust in 2009.

AK was born in October 2002 and suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of a prolonged period of hypoxia at the time of his birth. In 2009, the High Court approved a settlement in his favour of the clinical negligence claim. The settlement included a lump sum payment of £1,050,000 plus the fol...

Kennedy & ors v Kennedy & ors [2014] EWHC 4129 (Ch)

June 2015 #150

The trustees of a settlement dated 16 December 2003 made by the first claimant, Brian Kennedy, (the settlement) sought an order to correct a mistake made in the terms of an appointment dated 1 October 2008 (the October 2008 appointment).

Under the terms of the settlement, of which Mr Kennedy was originally the sole trustee, Mr Kennedy had a life interest in possession. The settlement contained a power of appointment exercisable by the trustees in favour of Mr Kennedy, his children and remoter issue. In default of appointment, the capital was held on trust for Mr Kennedy’s children...

King & anr v Gershon Robertson (St Vincent and the Grenadines) [2014] UKPC 34

June 2015 #150

The appeal arose out of a disputed claim to land.

In 1856 or 1857 W, who had been seised of land in fee simple, died. His will set out to leave a life interest in the land to his widow and thereafter to his four named children and after them to five named grandchildren. One of those grandchildren had (at least) two sons, E and B.

The respondent, G, was the grandson of B.

The appellants, K and R, derived their title from the other son E. In 1947, E had made a will asserting that he was the freehold owner of the land, it having devolved upon him as the heir at law of W...

Litman & anr v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 089 (TC)

June 2015 #150

This was the conjoined appeal of two taxpayers against penalty determinations issued against them by HMRC. The taxpayers, who were both business people who held directorships in a number of UK companies, had realised capital gains on the disposal of an entity known as Efforsenrab Ltd and land and buildings in Essex in the UK. They participated in a capital redemption policy scheme and claimed a capital loss arising from that scheme to be set against the capital gains which they had realised. They both signed a professional services agreement with a tax adviser under which it agreed to pr...

Re The Portman Estate [2015] EWHC 536 (Ch)

June 2015 #150

This claim comprised various applications relating to the trusts of the Portman Estate, which own significant real property in London and elsewhere. There are several separate settlements, whose property is held in various funds. The claim was brought by the trustees, without naming any defendants. However, two key beneficiaries consented to the proposed application in writing.

The trustees sought orders under s57 Trustee Act 1925 conferring various powers on the trustees of various different trusts of the estate. None of the powers sought affected the beneficial interests under t...