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Goodrich & ors v AB & ors [2022] WTLR 525
Summer 2022 #187W was the founder of WBL, an internationally renowned publisher of children’s books. In 1989 W instructed solicitors to create an employee trust (WBET) for WBL and transferred 51% of the WBL shares into WBET. The remainder of the shares were divided amongst family trusts established by W.
W died in 1991 and the shares in WBL held by the family trusts were distributed to employees and officers of WBL through a qualifying employee share ownership trust and a share incentive plan. Some of those shares were acquired from employees by the WBL Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP).
<...HM Attorney General v Zedra Fiduciary Services (UK) Ltd [2022] WTLR 557
Summer 2022 #187The Attorney General applied for a cy-près scheme to be made pursuant to the Charities Act 2011, ss62 and 67 with respect to a charitable trust known as the National Fund. The defendant as trustee of the National Fund (the trustee) invited the court to direct an alternative scheme.
The National Fund had been established in 1928 for the purpose of the discharge of the National Debt. By the date of the hearing the National Fund held £600m, and the National Debt, as at the end of October 2021, was £2,277.6bn.
In its judgment of 20 November 2020 (HM Attorney General v Zedra Fid...
Johnston v Wackett [2022] WTLR 575
Summer 2022 #187Sidney Albert Johnston (the deceased) died on 27 March 2017. In prior proceedings, the deceased’s son, Colin Johnston (Colin), had brought a successful claim against the deceased’s estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act claim).
Following trial of the 1975 Act claim, Colin received a lump sum award of £125,000 (the award) and an order for costs.
A point of importance in the 1975 Act claim had been historic litigation between Colin and the deceased. This had resulted in a costs order being made against Colin on 19 November 19...
Mattingley v Bugeja [2022] WTLR 601
Summer 2022 #187Kim Mattingley (Kim) died on 28 June 2020. C was Kim’s daughter. D was Kim’s administratrix and sister (ie C’s aunt). Kim left an English will dated 31 May 2016 (the 2016 will). Letters of administration with the will annexed (limited to English assets) were granted to D.
Under the 2016 will, Kim left her residuary estate to C, but in fact there was little or no residuary estate. The 2016 will provided that Kim’s interest in 8 Crabtree Close, Ings Hill, West Malling (the property) and certain effects within it be devised absolutely to D. The 2016 will expressed a wish that D permi...
Re May Trust [2022] WTLR 637
Summer 2022 #187The trustee of a Jersey trust known as the May Trust made a Public Trustee v Cooper Category 2 application for a ‘blessing’ of its decision to make a distribution to a beneficiary (B). The primary purpose of the distribution was to allow B to benefit a charity, which was also a beneficiary of the trust. The application was uncontentious.
The trust had been declared in 2000 by a deed of appointment. The appointing trust had been settled by B’s father in Cayman in 1982. The governing law of the May Trust was changed from Cayman law to Jersey law. The assets of the appointing trust w...
Morris v Fuirer & ors [2022] WTLR 659
Summer 2022 #187The claimant, who was the only child of Cynthia Morris (the testatrix), was the principal beneficiary under her will dated 25 October 2000 but not under later wills made on 28 November 2006 and 14 July 2010 (the wills). The testatrix died on 7 August 2017. Under the terms of her last will, the second and third defendants were appointed as executors; pecuniary legacies were bequeathed to the claimant (£35,000), the first defendant (£70,000) and the fourth defendant (£10,000); and her residuary estate was gifted to the sixth to ninth defendants who were charities. The claimant first intima...
Skillett v Skillett [2022] WTLR 679
Summer 2022 #187Charles Skillett (Mr Skillett) and his wife had four children. Mr Skillett owned a smallholding and, on 7 December 2010, received a market appraisal valuing the smallholding at £50,000. On 19 May 2011, Mr Skillett and his wife made mirror wills which provided, in summary, on the death of the first spouse, for the surviving spouse to take everything absolutely, and on the death of the surviving spouse, for the smallholding to be given to their eldest son, the other three children to receive £50,000 and the residuary estate to be split equally among all four children. Mrs Skillett passed a...
St Clair v King & anr [2022] WTLR 703
Summer 2022 #187The defendants were the executors of the deceased’s last will dated 20 May 2009 (the 2009 will). The claimant, who was the stepdaughter of the deceased, challenged the 2009 will. There were seven issues at trial:
(i) whether 2007 wills made by the deceased and her husband (the claimant’s father) were mutual wills such that if the 2009 will was admitted to probate, the estate needed to be administered to give effect to a constructive trust reflecting the terms of the 2007 will; (ii) whether there was a contract between the claimant and the deceased before the 2009 will to make and no...Womble Bond Dickinson (Trust Corporation) Ltd v No Named Defendant [2022] WTLR 765
Summer 2022 #187By a trust instrument dated 29 April 1986 (the 1986 deed), Stephenson Clarke Shipping Ltd, a subsidiary of Powell Duffryn plc and member of the Powell Duffryn group of companies (the PD Group), as the named settlor, settled cash and securities on a discretionary trust for the benefit of employees and former employees of the PD Group (the trust). The trust defined the beneficiaries as ‘the employees and their spouses and dependants and the former employees and their spouses from time to time during the trust period [being the period expiring eighty years from the date of the trust] of the...
Boothman & ors v Horsford & anr [2022] WTLR 1
Spring 2022 #186The claim sought removal of the defendants as executors of the estate of James and Agatha Horsford, who were the parents of the claimants and defendants.
The mother had died in December 2011 and the father had died in January 2014. It was common ground that the father’s estate was not fully administered. The claimants said this was an unconscionable delay. It was also said that the defendants had not properly accounted for their executorship and there remained outstanding questions as to what constituted his estate and what had happened to the monies within it. The defendants were...
Brealey v Shepherd & Co [2022] WTLR 17
Spring 2022 #186The claimant applied for detailed assessment of the defendant’s costs incurred in the administration of a deceased’s estate under s71(3) of the Solicitors Act 1974.
Ann Brealey died on 15 April 2014. Her will left the claimant as the main beneficiary. It named her brother, Peter Hayward, and Robin Peter Shepherd, a solicitor, as the executors and trustees of her will. The executors instructed the defendant firm to administer the deceased’s estate. Mr Shepherd was one of the two partners in that firm. The defendant’s bills for the administration of the estate had been paid by the e...
Brealey v Shepherd & Co (2) [2022] WTLR 27
Spring 2022 #186The proceedings concerned detailed assessment as part of a beneficiary’s challenge to the legal costs incurred in the administration of the estate of his late mother. The point of dispute considered in the judgment was the fees raised by one of the two executors, Mr Shepherd, who was a solicitor. It was common ground that the will did not contain a charging clause. Mr Shepherd relied on a number of arguments. He argued that his appointment was a personal one, irrespective of him being a solicitor, and that both executors were entitled to be reimbursed their expenses incurred in fair exec...
Brookman & anr v Potts & anr [2022] WTLR 37
Spring 2022 #186By his will dated 17 January 2011 (the will), Arthur Brookman (the deceased) appointed his wife, Sandra Brookman, together with her children and brother to be the executors and trustees. The deceased placed his beneficial half share in the matrimonial home at 49 Hemsby Road, Castleford (the property) in a discretionary trust for the benefit of a class of potential beneficiaries that included his wife, his children by a former marriage, his stepchildren and six named grandchildren. Subject to the power of appointment, the capital and income were held on trust for such of his children and ...
Brown v New Quadrant Trust Corporation Ltd & anr [2022] WTLR 49
Spring 2022 #186New Quadrant Trust Corporation Ltd (the trustee), a professional trustee corporation and trustee of a discretionary trust (the trust), decided to sell the trust’s shares in a company known as Lifetime Home Securities Ltd (LHS), such shares representing approximately 25% of the value within the trust. LHS had traded in home equity release arrangements but was then non-trading, with around 13 properties remaining on its portfolio and a remaining director who was 92 years old. The trustee considered that a sale of the shares was more tax efficient, would diversify the trust’s portfolio and ...
Da Silva v Heselton & ors [2022] WTLR 67
Spring 2022 #186The first defendant was an executor and trustee of the will dated 28 June 2001 (the will) of Gladys Dulcie Townsend (the deceased), who died on 1 July 2003 leaving property both in England and Wales and in Dominica. Probate of the will was granted to the first defendant and a solicitor out of the Winchester Probate Registry on 2 December 2004. The claimant, who was a residuary beneficiary under the will, brought a claim seeking the removal and replacement of the executors in December 2015. An order removing the first defendant by consent was made on 2 June 2016. The first defendant, who ...
Dunsby v HMRC [2022] WTLR 81
Spring 2022 #186Mr Mark Dunsby participated in a tax avoidance scheme devised and promoted by De Sales Promotions Ltd. As part of the scheme, in March 2013, Mr Dunsby had a company, of which he was sole shareholder and director, issue a non-voting share to a non-resident individual, Mrs Fiona Gower. Mrs Gower established a trust and settled the share in the trust, with the benefit of any dividends being for Mr Dunsby, and Mr Dunsby’s company paid £200,000 as a dividend in respect of the settled share. As a result of the scheme, Mr Dunsby received £195,400. HMRC issued a closure notice dated 31 March 201...
Equiom (Isle of Man) Ltd & ors v Velarde & ors [2022] WTLR 109
Spring 2022 #186Under a settlement made in 1974 by the deceased’s father, the deceased became the life tenant of a fund, over which property she had a power of appointment exercisable in favour of her children by deed revocable or irrevocable, or by will. In 1981, by a deed of appointment with effect from her death, the deceased appointed the fund between her three children. By a deed of revocation in 1997, expressed to be supplemental to the settlement and the 1981 deed of appointment, with effect from her death, the fund was appointed on trust for only two of her three children. The deceased made her ...
Heslop v Heslop & anr [2022] WTLR 137
Spring 2022 #186Mr Dudley Heslop issued two separate proceedings in England against his sister, Ms Mona Heslop, domiciled in England, and his other sister, Mrs Jennifer Seales, domiciled in Scotland. The proceedings concerned the equitable ownership of a property in Jamaica that had been purchased by the parties’ late mother in 2008. The parties’ mother had been domiciled in England from 1948 to 2015 when she moved to Scotland to live with Mrs Seales. In 2018, the parties’ mother passed away, leaving a will dated 13 March 2012 which purported to deal with the property. The proceedings issued by Mr Heslo...