Phillips v RSPB & ors [2012] EWHC 618 (Ch)
June 2012 #120Vera Gwendoline Spear (the testator) died on 5 January 2007 leaving a will dated 29 August 1997 (the will). Apart from a specific bequest of the testator’s pet parrot the will left the entirety of the testator’s estate on trust to her executors to be divided in equal shares between the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, Monkey World Ltd and ‘the Owl Sanctuary Crow Ringwood Hampshire’. The value of the deceased’s residuary estate was approximately £260,000. The claimant was the testator’s sole executor an...
Wills v Gibbs & ors [2007] EWHC 3361 (Ch)
June 2012 #120The testator (T) died on 11 January 2005 leaving his share of the farming business they carried on together to the third defendant (PW) together with land. PW wished to exercise the opportunity to vary T’s will by deed of variation so as to pass this inheritance to his son, the claimant (RW) and so avoid the possibility of the disposition being a lifetime transfer taking effect as a potentially exempt transfer (PET) giving rise to an Inheritance Tax (IHT) liability should PW die within seven years of the gift. PW was concerned that opportunity to make such a deed might be swept awa...
Young & anr v HM Attorney General & ors [2011] EWHC 3782 (Ch)
June 2012 #120Wedgwood Museum Trust Ltd (the museum company) was insolvent. Directions were sought by the administrators of the museum company as to whether or not a unique museum collection of pottery and other artefacts built up over many years by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd (the trading company) was available to pay liabilities arising in the insolvency of the museum company.
The museum company was incorporated in 1962 and received the collection as a gift from the trading company in 1964. At the time of the gift, it was not contemplated that the museum company would acquire liabilities. Th...
Central Bank of Nigeria v Williams [2012] EWCA Civ 415
June 2012 #120In 1986, Dr Williams (D) participated in a transaction under which, he alleges, he was defrauded of $6,520,190. He commenced proceedings on 10 March 2010 against Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) alone, asserting that: an English solicitor, Reuben Gale (R), held that sum of money in his client account in trust for D on terms that he would only release it if and when certain funds had been paid in Nigeria; in May 1986 R fraudulently paid away $6,020,190 of the sum held by him for D to the account of CBN with Midland Bank in England; CBN was party to the fraud; and R retained the balance of $5...
Crafer v Jesshope
June 2012 #120The application concerned a rift within the Jesshope/Crafer family. Mrs Edith Jesshope, aged 89, was the respondent. Mr Hubert Jesshope, aged 90, had been married to Mrs Jesshope for 65 years. Mrs Jesshope was the mother of Graham and Susan. The applicant was Susan’s husband, Mr Ian Crafer.
In mid-2008, Mr Jesshope took steps to require Graham to move out of the long time family house in Esher owned by Mr and Mrs Jesshope. Mrs Jesshope asserted a wish to live with Graham instead of Mr Jesshope. A rift emerged between Mrs Jesshope and Graham on one side (liviing in the Esher ...
D R Sheridan LLP v Higgins & anr [2012] EWHC 547 (Ch)
June 2012 #120C left a will appointing her son and daughter as executors and benefiting her family. Initially, both the son and the daughter instructed a solicitor, D. There was a dispute as to £200,000 which had been transferred out of the estate (although it was not clear when) by the daughter. D suggested that the daughter obtain independent advice, which she did. D was then only instructed by the son. The son brought proceedings for an interim injunction preserving the £200,000, which were compromised but the ultimate issue of ownership not finally resolved. There was a breakdown in relations betw...
Ibuna & anr v Arroyo & anr [2012] EWHC 428 (Ch)
June 2012 #120Congressman A was resident in both California and the Philippines. He was domiciled in the Philippines. He died while receiving treatment in the UK. There was a dispute between A’s estranged second wife (Mrs A) and his life partner (Ms I) as to who should take possession of A’s body and make arrangements for burial in the Philippines. Ms I initiated proceedings in England; Mrs A began proceedings in the Philippines. Mrs A intended (as was her right as a wife under Filipino law) to dispose of the body and have a wake at her home (from which A had, prior to his death, been excl...
Khan v Crossland
June 2012 #120Dennis Griffiths (testator) died on 30 October 2008 leaving an estate worth about £430,000. By his last will, made nine years previously, the testator had appointed as his executors two partners in a firm of will writers known as ‘Will Drafters’ (respondents). The sole beneficiaries were the testator’s two stepchildren, Ruth Savidge and David Khan (applicant). The respondents initially proposed to charge 3-4% of the value of the estate to carry on its administration and the beneficiaries, who had already reached an informal agreement as to how to deal with the estate, i...
Mclaughlin v HMRCC [2012] UKFTT 174 (TC)
June 2012 #120James Albert McLaughlin (taxpayer), who was UK resident, engaged in a marketed planning scheme to avoid tax on a capital gain that he had made on the sale of a business. The scheme involved the acquisition by exchange of shares for overseas registered loan notes issued by two subsidiaries of Skandia UK Ltd (loan notes). The taxpayer then transferred the loan notes to SG Hambros Trust Company Ltd (trustee) to hold on the trusts of a settlor-interested settlement that he had established on 5 February 2003. By a deed of addition made a month later, the trustee added Adrian Gower, who was do...