Charles Cooper | Barrister & Mediator

Category: Probate

Rea v. Rea & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 169

No undue influence where coercion has not been shown to have been ‘more probable than any other possibility’, in this case the ‘aspects of… [the Claimant’s] evidence to which the Judge drew attention were consistent with the (inherently more probable) possibility of… having merely sought to persuade her mother to make the… Will’: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/2024/169
Read more: Rea v. Rea & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 169
Kenig v. Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP [2024] EWCA Civ 15

It is open to a beneficiary to challenge legal fees, even though already paid from estate funds, under s.71(3) Solicitors Act 1974, but ‘fully informed consent by the executor (if proved) is likely to be a major consideration, which in many cases may prove to be determinative’: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/2024/15
Read more: Kenig v. Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP [2024] EWCA Civ 15
Stoney-Anderson v. Abbas [2023] EWHC 2964 (Ch)

An executor loses indemnity for costs in fighting his removal ‘when it ought to have been obvious that… in light of the allegations made against him, the administration of the estate would not be carried out effectively and properly so long as he remained’: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2023/2964
Read more: Stoney-Anderson v. Abbas [2023] EWHC 2964 (Ch)