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England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions >> Wylde v Culver [2006] EWHC 923 (Ch) (12 April 2006) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2006/923.html Cite as: [2006] EWHC 923 (Ch), [2006] 4 All ER 345, [2006] 1 WLR 2674, [2006] WTLR 931 |
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CHANCERY DIVISION
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court
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In the Estate of Jean Wylde deceased (Probate) | ||
ROBERT GRAHAM WYLDE | Claimant | |
- and - | ||
THERESA DIANNE CULVER | ||
(as Executrix of the Estate of Jean Wylde deceased) | Defendant |
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Daniel Bromilow (instructed by Field Seymour Parkes) for the Defendant
Hearing date: 3 April 2006
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Crown Copyright ©
The Deputy Judge:
Background
i) His brother, Kevin Wylde, says that he had had a conversation with the Defendant in November 2003, when she was visiting her mother. In this conversation, says Kevin Wylde, the Defendant told him that the Deceased had that day been to solicitors and had altered her will, principally to remove as beneficiaries four of the Wylde grandchildren with whom the Deceased had had no contact for some time. He also says that he was told he had been made an executor.
ii) It is said by the Claimant and his son that at a dinner with his family at his house on Boxing Day 2004 the Deceased had announced that all her inheritance was going to the grandchildren and that "no adults would get anything".
Permission to discontinue
"The special circumstances justifying a different order may be classified under two heads, ie. (i) fault of the testator or the residuary beneficiary — costs out of the estate, (ii) case for inquiry — no order as to costs."
i) If on the one hand, a serious issue has been raised as to the due execution of the 2003 Will, it would quite probably be inappropriate to allow discontinuance.
ii) If on the other hand, no serious issue has been raised, it is difficult to see why the Claimant should avoid having to pay the costs of the action on the action being discontinued.
i) the circumstances surrounding the making of the 2003 Will, in particular the facts that the 2003 Will was written out by a principal beneficiary and was purportedly witnessed by someone the Deceased did not like, whose signature did not seem to be genuine, following a telephone conversation the Deceased was unlikely to have made;
ii) the fact that probate was obtained so promptly;
iii) discrepancy between the contents of the 2003 Will and what was supposedly told to Kevin Wylde and what was said by the Deceased at the Boxing Day dinner;
iv) the fact that the sale of the house had been progressed in a secretive manner and with apparent haste to distribute the proceeds of sale; and
v) the lack of explanation for the decision of the Deceased to replace the 1991 Will.
Costs