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Khan v Mahmood [2021] WTLR 639
Summer 2021 #183In 1997 the respondent and the appellant jointly purchased a property, contributing to the purchase price equally. The appellant and his family occupied the property. In 2007 the respondent was investigated for benefit fraud, and represented to the local authority that he had no beneficial interest in the property, being merely a nominal trustee for the appellant. He repeated that assertion in evidence before the Magistrates’ Court in defence of criminal charges, and later at the First-tier Tribunal in other proceedings. In March 2007 the respondent signed a form TR1 purporting to ...
Rehman v Hamid [2021] WTLR 663
Summer 2021 #183The deceased was born in pre-partition India in 1942, later living in Pakistan. She moved to England in 1965 where she married her husband who was also living in England. In 1986, the couple purchased an English property where they lived until the husband’s death in early 2015. Later in 2015 the deceased returned to Pakistan to live with her nephew. The deceased died in hospital in 2017 three weeks after making her final will which left her estate entirely to her nephew’s son. This was a significant departure from the mirror will she had executed with her husband in 1993, und...
Rittson-Thomas & ors v Oxfordshire County Council [2021] WTLR 679
Summer 2021 #183The appeal concerned Nettlebed School in Oxfordshire. In 1914 and 1928, Mr Robert Fleming conveyed land to Oxfordshire County Council (the council) under the School Sites Act 1841 (SSA 1841). The benefactions enabled a new school building to be built. The school operated on the site until 2006. In the 1990s, the council decided to relocate the school to a new building with improved facilities on other land owned by the council (adjacent to the old site), and the pupils moved to the new building in February 2006. The council’s plan was to sell the old site to pay off the costs of th...
The British University in Dubai v Ebrahimi [2021] WTLR 703
Summer 2021 #183The deceased died on 4 July 2018 leaving a disputed will, dated 3 May 2018, probate of which was granted to the defendant, who together with his wife were the only beneficiaries.
The 2018 will was a holographic one-page will. On one side it bore the signatures of two witnesses who, it was common ground, had witnessed the testator’s signature on 4 May 2018 when not together at the same time and so did not validly attest the will in accordance with s9, Wills Act 1837. On the reverse of the will were two further signatures dated 3 May 2018, belonging to two further witnesses, D...
Ware v Ware [2021] WTLR 725
Summer 2021 #183The claimant’s father (the testator) died on 21 October 2003 leaving his half share in the matrimonial home and his residual estate to his wife, the defendant, absolutely. On 4 October 2005 the defendant varied those dispositions by a deed of variation which, for inheritance tax purposes, was read back to the date of the testator’s death. The deed of variation created two trusts: the property trust and the will trust.
The property trust held the testator’s half share in the matrimonial property on trust for the defendant for life, with the remainder to the claima...
Womble Bond Dickinson (Trust Corporation) Ltd & ors v Glenn & ors [2021] WTLR 737
Summer 2021 #183The trustees of a settlement sought directions as to whether they could advance capital to certain beneficiaries pursuant to their powers under s32 Trustee Act 1925, as varied by a clause of the trust deed, so as to bring the trust to an end. They sought a declaration as to whether the proposed advancements were within the power as a matter of construction, (ie whether there were beneficiaries with interests prior to those of the beneficiaries in whose favour the advancements were to be made, whose consent was required), and, presuming that they were within that power, the court’s ...
Wooldridge v Wooldridge & ors [2021] WTLR 755
Summer 2021 #183The claimant was the 50-year-old widow of the deceased. She brought a claim for reasonable financial provision to be made for her from the estate of her late husband, Ian Wooldridge.
The first, second and third defendants were the executors of the estate and adopted a neutral stance. The fourth defendant was the deceased’s 28-year-old son from a previous marriage, and the fifth defendant was the deceased’s 12-year-old son.
There was some dispute over the value of the estate and the claimant’s entitlement under the deceased’s homemade last will, but a...
Wooldridge v Wooldridge & ors (costs) [2021] WTLR 777
Summer 2021 #183The claimant was the 50-year-old widow of the deceased. She brought a claim for reasonable financial provision to be made for her from the estate of her late husband, Ian Wooldridge.
The first, second and third defendants were the executors of the estate and adopted a neutral stance. The fourth and fifth defendants opposed the claim.
The claim was dismissed, and the costs of the claim fell to be determined.
The claimant accepted that she had to pay the costs of the first, second and third defendants assessed on the indemnity basis. She also accepted that she had to p...
B v C & ors [2021] WTLR 1
Spring 2021 #182A was survived by C, his sister; H, with whom he had had a relationship; E and F, who were the daughters of A and H; B, with whom A had also had a relationship; and G, the son of A and B. C was one of the executors of A’s will. Each of A and C owned 50% of the shares in X Ltd (the company) and on A’s death C remained a director and was in control of the company. During A’s lifetime, a property (Property 1) was acquired in his name and remained so at his death.
There were three claims following A’s death: (1) H claimed to be the beneficial owner of Property 1 (the property claim); ...
Barrett v Hammond & ors [2021] WTLR 51
Spring 2021 #182Dr Robert Munroe Black (the ‘testator’) and his wife, Beatrice Maud Black, were a childless couple who made mirror wills dated 29 September 1998. These were professionally prepared by Lucas & Co, which was subsequently taken over by Simpson Millar. Subject to the payment of several pecuniary legacies, on the death of the survivor the wills directed the division of the residuary estate into 52 parts for the benefit of six named individuals as to six parts each and a number of charities as to two parts each.
The testator and his wife amended their wills by codicils dated 2 Augus...
Re C Trust [2021] WTLR 69
Spring 2021 #182This was an application by P (a current trustee) to be appointed as sole trustee of the trust under s31(1) Trustee Act 1975 (Bermuda), and for liberty to manage the assets of the trust on the basis that it had been validly appointed as trustee by a deed dated 1 July 2015.
The trust was established by a deed dated 22 June 1965 between the settlor and the original trustee. It was a discretionary trust, with the beneficiaries including the settlor and his brothers then living or born at any time thereafter, subject to certain limitations in favour of the male line of descendants. It ...
Cheong v Cheong [2021] WTLR 79
Spring 2021 #182Shortly before his death in 1947, the deceased made a will appointing his sons as his executors and trustees (the will). Clause 3 of the will provided that, ‘If any of my Trustees disagree with the others or have to attend to other business, he is at liberty to resign and the vacancy thereby created shall be filled accordingly.’
By 2017, following a series of deeds of appointments and retirements of trustees over several decades, the trustees were three individuals. In January 2019, the plaintiff wrote to the two other trustees notifying them of his intention to retire as a truste...
Clarke-Sullivan v Clarke-Sullivan [2021] WTLR 109
Spring 2021 #182The claimant and the deceased, who both originated from New Zealand, were married. They lived in London from 2006-10 and in Dubai from 2010-15, returning to London before the deceased’s death in 2019.
In 2014, the claimant and the deceased created a discretionary trust under the laws of New Zealand, with New Zealand being the initial forum of administration (the trust). The beneficiaries included the claimant and the deceased, their future issue and organisations that were deemed to be charitable under New Zealand law. The trust was established to hold property intended to be purc...
Commissioners for HMRC v The Quentin Skinner 2005 Settlement L & ors [2021] WTLR 127
Spring 2021 #182On 30 July 2015 Mr Ludovic Skinner (LS), Mr Rollo Skinner (RS) and Mr Bruno Skinner (BS) were given interests in possession under the L Skinner Settlement, the R Skinner Settlement and the B Skinner Settlement respectively in the whole of the settled property. On 11 August 2015 Mr Quentin David Skinner (QS) gave 55,000 D ordinary shares in DPAS Ltd to each of those settlements. LS, RS and BS had, since 2011, each held 32,250 C class shares with full voting rights in the company and were also officers of DPAS Ltd from at least 2011 onwards. On 1 December 2015 the trustees of the settlemen...
Dunsby v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2021] WTLR 157
Spring 2021 #182This was an appeal concerning a tax avoidance scheme designed to allow shareholders in private companies to extract profits without paying income tax on them.
Prior to entering into the scheme, T was sole director and shareholder of M Ltd. The scheme had three steps:
(1) On 11 March 2013, the board of directors of M Ltd (ie T as sole director) and T resolved to approve the creation of a new class of ‘S’ ordinary shares and the necessary amendments to M Ltd’s articles of association. On the same day, M Ltd (by resolution of T as sole shareholder) created the new S class of sha...Gosden & anr v Haliwell Landau & anr [2021] WTLR 205
Spring 2021 #182The claimants brought a claim against the first defendant, a firm of solicitors, and against the second defendant, who was a partner in the first defendant firm, for damages for professional negligence in respect of a tax mitigation scheme known as an Estate Protection Scheme (EPS), by which it was intended that a property (the property) owned by the first claimant’s mother (the deceased) would pass on her death to the first claimant, with substantially less Inheritance Tax (IHT) being payable than if the property had been disposed of by will. The property remained registered in the sole...
LCR v SC & ors [2021] WTLR 229
Spring 2021 #182An 85-year-old woman (KC) executed two lasting powers of attorney (LPAs), one for the management of her property and affairs, and the other for welfare decision-making. She had been assessed, eight days prior to execution of the LPAs, by a specialist mental health practitioner as having capacity to execute the LPAs notwithstanding a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Dementia. Both LPAs appointed all four of KC’s daughters as her attorneys. One daughter (LCR) declined to execute the LPAs, maintaining at the time that KC lacked the requisite capacity to grant the LPAs.
LCR issued an applicat...