Re Longman (dec’d) [2012] EWHC 666 (Ch)
October 2012 #123Mrs Elizabeth Longman (D) died on 18 April 2008, leaving the residue of her estate equally to six charities if they were in existence at the date of her death. One of the six was the International Bible Society (UK) (IBS). When the will was made, IBS was an unincorporated association, but it had incorporated in May 2007 by transferring all its assets to a new charitable company, IBS-STL Ltd. Clause 6.3 of D’s will (see para [2] of the judgment below) provided that if one or more of the named charities merged or ceased to exist her trustees could pay its share of the residue to another ch...
Page & anr v Hewetts Solicitors & anr [2012] EWCA Civ 805
October 2012 #123The claimants (P) were the beneficiaries under their parents’ will. The first respondents Hewetts, solicitors (H) were retained to advise and act for P in the administration of their parents’ estates. The second respondent, Christopher Fuller (F) was employed by H as a legal executive. F was instructed by P in 1998 in relation to a sale of P’s parents’ property. Unknown to P at the time, F carried on business as a property developer through Exnine Developments (E) and recommended that P sell the property for £190,000 to Sahana Enterprises Ltd (S), which had agreed...
Scott v Scott [2012] EWHC 2397 (Ch)
October 2012 #123The claimant (Andrew) and the defendant (Martin) were brothers. They were the trustees of a trust created in 1991 by their mother (Elizabeth Scott). Andrew, Martin and Simon Jackson QC (a long standing friend of Elizabeth Scott) were the principal beneficiaries of the trust. There were other discretionary beneficiaries. Andrew had carried out the day to day administration of the trust since 2006.
The trust had formerly comprised a farm of 60 acres and a nursing home. Significant distributions were made. Andrew carried out significant works to a property known as the Barn, which wa...
Re The Sir Edward Heath charitable trust
October 2012 #123By his will dated 16 April 2002, the late Sir Edward Heath settled his home and contents, Arundells at Salisbury, upon charitable trusts. The trustees had power to apply income and capital to or for the benefit of one or more of six charitable objects, but no express power of sale save in furtherance of the charitable objects. In the years since the will was proved on 18 January 2006, annual deficits had been incurred by the trustees on opening Arundells to the public and, even after the sale of Sir Edward Heath’s papers, the balance available after eliminating the overdraft could ...
Trustees & anr v Capmark Bank [2011] EWCA Civ 380
October 2012 #123The appellants were the trustees of the Maylands Unit Trust (the trustees), a Jersey-based unit trust formed as a vehicle for the acquisition of warehouse premises in Hemel Hampstead (the property) by Cantabria Investments Ltd (Cantabria). The purchase price of the property was £28.1m, funded by £7.1m of Cantabria’s own resources and a £21m loan from Capmark Bank Europe (the bank) and secured on the property. The security was created by a deed of guarantee and debenture (the debenture) between the trustees and the bank. At the time of the purchase of the property it was subject to ...
Charity Commission v RNIB 226227
September 2012 #122The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) asked the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Commission) in May 2009 to authorise the payment of the RNIB’s Chair at the rate of £24,000 per annum for two days’ work per week. Authority was sought with effect from the date the chair was due to take office (23 July 2009), for his full three-year term of office. Previous authority had been given by the Commission to the RNIB to pay reasonable remuneration to four trustees in 2006 and to a fifth in 2007.
A week before the chair took office, some of the trustees r...
Drakeford v Cotton & anr [2012] EWHC 1414 (Ch)
September 2012 #122Ernest Cotton (Mr Cotton) and Mary Cotton (Mrs Cotton) won about £107,000 on the National Lottery and made mirror image wills on 16 May 1997 that provided for the survivor to take the entire estate of the first to die and, on the death of the survivor, for it to pass equally to their three children, who were the claimant and defendants. When Mr Cotton died on 7 February 2008 there were two jointly-held accounts (respectively a deposit and current account) with the Coventry Building Society containing £49,186.98 and £2,622.08 (Accounts). Both were thenceforth owned legally and beneficiall...
Re Foote Estate [2011] ABCA 1
September 2012 #122Eldon Foote, the deceased (D) was born in Alberta and lived there for the first 43 years of his life. He married and had five children there. When he died in 2004, his estate was worth approximately $130m. He also controlled a charitable foundation worth approximately $80m and had other assets worth approximately $10m. The bulk of his assets were held through corporations in the British Virgin Islands, and he had some investments and investment properties in Norfolk Island and a cabin in Alberta. D had left Alberta in 1967 to start his business in Australia and, over the next three years...
Independent Trustee Services Ltd v GP Noble Trustees Ltd & ors [2012] EWCA Civ 195
September 2012 #122Anthony Morris (Mr Morris) orchestrated a series of frauds between August 2007 and April 2008 by which £52m was misappropriated from various occupational pension schemes by their trustees, GP Noble Trustees Ltd and BDC Trustees Ltd. The appellant was Independent Trustee Services Ltd (ITS), which had been appointed as trustee of the 1653 pension schemes by the Pensions Regulator in July 2008. Mr Morris was found liable in dishonest assistance for £52m and in knowing receipt for £4.89m by Peter Smith J in July 2010 ([2010] EWHC 1653 (Ch)) (the chancery action).
Mr Morris had married...
Re JC 11757467
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 ...