Southwell v Blackburn [2014] EWCA Civ 1347
January/February 2015 #146In 2002, the appellant and the respondent set up home together in a house in Droitwich. They remained unmarried. The property was purchased in the appellant’s sole name with his money alone, and he took on sole responsibility for the mortgage. On the breakdown of their relationship, the respondent claimed that the appellant held the property was held by him on constructive trust for both parties in equal shares. That claim failed before His Honour Judge Pearce-Higgins QC, but her alternative proprietary estoppel claim succeeded. The respondent was awarded £28,500 in satisfaction of the e...
The Woodland Trust v Loring & ors [2014] EWCA Civ 1314
January/February 2015 #146The Woodland Trust brought this appeal on the basis that the Chancery Court judge at first instance had not determined the construction of a will correctly. The matter involved the estate of Valerie Smith who died in 2011 leaving a will executed on 2 February 2001 which left her residuary estate (totalling £680,805), to her family (the respondents) and the Woodland Trust. The relevant clauses for construction were clauses 5 and 6. Clause 5 stated as follows:
‘MY TRUSTEES shall set aside out of my residuary estate assets or cash of an aggregate value equa...
V v T & anr [2014] EWHC 3432 (Ch)
January/February 2015 #146The claimant was the settlor of three trusts and applied, under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958, for approval of similar arrangements for the benefit of minor beneficiaries under the trust and for future, yet unborn, beneficiaries under the trust.
The principal defendants were the trustees, the adult beneficiaries (who consented to the proposed arrangements) and the minor beneficiaries, acting through their litigation friend.
Before the hearing the parties had contact Chancery Listing and obtained agreement that the cases would be listed for hearing with initials ...
AB v CB & anr [2014] EWHC 2998 (Fam)
January/February 2015 #146This was an application for ancillary relief following the wife’s divorce petition of October 2012, upon which decree nisi was pronounced on 17 April 2013. At the time of these proceedings the wife was 44 years of age, and the husband was 41. On paper, the husband had almost no assets and a modest income. However, the husband came from a family of great wealth with substantial lands in Pembrokeshire which they had owned for generations. His financial security was therefore absolutely assured.
The wife and the husband had first met in 1999. They had married in February 200...
Chadwick v Collinson & ors [2014] EWHC 3055 (Ch)
January/February 2015 #146Lisa Jane Clay (the deceased) and the claimant lived together from about 2003. They had a child together named Joseph, who was six years old in April 2013. From January 2013, they lived at the property at 36 Lowlands Road, Lancashire (the property) which the claimant and the deceased held as joint tenants. The deceased made a will on 18 August 2008 under which the claimant was the sole residuary beneficiary. The net value of the estate was £79,098.87 of which £60,000 comprised the deceased’s interest in the property. The couple’s relationship was at all times entirely stable,...
Cotton & anr v Earl of Cardigan & ors [2014] EWCA Civ 1312
January/February 2015 #146The claimants were the present trustees of the Savernake Estate, the principal asset of which was a grade I listed house known as Tottenham House together with a dilapidated grade II listed stable block (together Tottenham House). Unoccupied since the 1990s and decaying fast, it was proposed to sell Tottenham House not least because of the need to repay significant borrowing from the bank. There was no dispute as to the trustees’ decision to sell; what was disputed was the process by which that sale should be achieved. The beneficiaries of the trust were the first defendant (Lord C...
Lim v Walia [2014] EWCA Civ 1076
January/February 2015 #146Jocelyn Walia died on 25 March 2011 aged 38. She had married Mr Walia in July 2003 and they had a daughter Emma-Kaur in November 2004.
In 21 May 2002, they bought a fixed-term life insurance. On the first death the survivor would be paid the sum insured. On proof of one of the life insured was suffering a terminal illness then the payment was brought forward and then no death benefit would be payable.
After they separated Mrs Walia moved to the Philippines and had a son Philip Lim in July 2009. In February 2011 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Mrs Walia died i...
Oates & anr v HMRC [2014] UKUT 0409 (LC)
January/February 2015 #146Mr and Mrs Oates (the appellants) were taxpayers who had sold their home together with a substantial piece of scrub land with development potential for £725,000. The gain on the sale of the appellants’ home and garden was exempt under s222 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (TCGA) but capital gains tax was payable on the land. Section 52(4) TCGA required the apportionment between the value of the land and the house to be on a ‘just and reasonable basis’ however no method is laid down in the legislation to assess this.
<...Randall v Randall [2014] EWHC 3134 (Ch)
January/February 2015 #146The claimant and defendant, who were divorced, had disposed of their claims for financial provision in their divorce proceedings by a consent order which included the provision that, in the event that the defendant received any property and/or monies from her mother by way of inter vivos gifts and/or inheritance, the defendant would retain the first £100,000 of the sum of any such gifts and/or inheritance and the balance would be divided equally between the defendant and the claimant.
The defendant’s mother died. The deceased’s estate was valued at approximately £250,000, giving t...
Seesurrun & anr v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 783 (TC)
January/February 2015 #146The appellants appealed against decisions by the respondent that income of certain non-UK entities (including settlements established in the Isle of Man) could be attributed to them pursuant to s739 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 (ICTA), which concerns the prevention of avoidance of income tax by individuals ordinarily resident in the UK by means of transfer of assets abroad.
The appellants owned three companies which carried on the trade of providing residential care to the elderly in the UK (the UK companies). The UK companies operated from four p...