Green v Astor & ors [2013] EWHC 1857 (Ch)
November 2013 #134The judgment concerned the costs of an application by the administratrix of the aforesaid estate (the Maitland Estate) pursuant to CPR, Part 64.2(a). Apart from two charities, there were six beneficiaries of the residuary estate under the will of the deceased. The first defendant, a beneficiary and formerly an executor, was the only of the defendants to oppose the application. The parties’ overall legal costs incurred up to and including the hearing were over £900,000, a staggering figure for an application of this kind, especially where the aspect of the estate in issue was worth ...
Jeffery v Jeffery [2013] EWHC 1942 (Ch)
November 2013 #134This was a retrial. The original trial in November 2012 was conducted in the absence of the defendant Andrew Jeffrey.
Daphne Jeffrey died in February 2010, aged 76, having divorced her husband David ten days before her death. She had two children – Nicholas and Andrew. She made a will in 2007 appointing Nicholas and Christopher Eyre (a friend left nothing in the will) as her executors and leaving her estate between Nicholas and Andrew’s three children. Prior to that she had made wills in 1982, 2002 and 2004. In 2008 she gifted two properties to Nicholas.
David and Daphne se...
McIntosh v McIntosh 1LU01921
November 2013 #134Kevin McIntosh (the deceased) died intestate on 13 September 2010 at the age of 34. He left a net estate of £333,564. He also left two pension scheme funds that were nominated, one in full to his estranged wife (the defendant) and the other as to 70% to the defendant and as to 10% to each of his younger brother Brian McIntosh (the claimant), his mother and his sister.
The claimant stated that the deceased had been maintaining him immediately prior to his death as he gave him monthly payments of £200 (which he spent on alcohol, cigarettes and petrol for his car). He had received t...
Pagel & anr v Farman [2013] EWHC 2210 (Comm)
November 2013 #134In 2001 Mr Pagel (P) and Mr Farman (F), set up a hedge fund. At first they shared responsibility for marketing and investment equally, but F began to concentrate on investing and P dealt with marketing and client relationships and F began to find the split unfair, so that from 2004 the 50/50 split was renegotiated and F received two thirds of the performance fees, but paid the cost of fixed employee bonuses and shared management fees 50/50 with P. Initially, both partners had to sign confirmations for all withdrawals but from autumn 2006 this only applied to amounts over £5,000. For a nu...
The Pollen Estate Trustee Co Ltd & anr v HMRC [2013] EWCA Civ 753
November 2013 #134The Pollen Estate Trustee Company (PETCL) held various London properties on trust for the beneficiaries of the Pollen Estate Trust (PET). Two of the beneficiaries of the PET were charities, being the Church Commissioners and Greenwich Hospital. From time to time PETCL bought and sold property. The appeal concerned four properties bought by PETCL on behalf of the PET between 2006 and 2008.
KCL is a charity. It operates a shared equity scheme under which it participates in the acquisition of homes for its employees in return for a share in the equity in the property proportionate to...
Rainbird & anr v Smith & ors [2012] EWHC 4276 (Ch)
November 2013 #134Doreen Gertrude Leader (the deceased) executed a will leaving the residue of her estate to her three daughters on the following terms:
‘I give my estate (including any property over which I may have general power of appointment or disposition by will) to my trustees upon trust…
(c) subject thereto hold the residue remaining and the income thereof (“my residuary estate”) UPON TRUST for such of them my daughters, the said JACQUELINE ANNE RAINBIRD JANET JONES of… and GWENDOLINE SMITH of… as shall survive me and if more than one in equal shares absolutely.’
J...
In the estate of Constance Rose Simon; Simon v Byford & ors [2013] EWHC 1490 (Ch)
November 2013 #134Mrs Constance Rose Simon died on 15 January 2009 at the age of 91. She was the widow of Mr R W Simon, with whom she had four children: namely Jonathan, Robert, Hilary and David. David predeceased his mother on 1 November 2004.
Mrs Simon’s estate consisted of her house in St John’s Wood, London (valued at £1.75m), a flat in Westcliffe on Sea (valued at £262,500), savings and shares (worth £55,000), some land in Malta and 16 shares in R W Simon Ltd (the company).
By Mrs Simon’s will dated 23 March 1978, she had left her entire estate to her four children i...