The claimant sought damages alleging professional negligence against her solicitors for herself and her late husband’s estate. She said that the will should have allowed advances of capital for all but pounds 100,000 of the estate, rather than the first pounds 100,000 only.
Held: The solicitors had not implemented the deceased’s instructions, and the claimant had suffered a loss accordingly. However, even so, there would have been a discretion in the trustees to make the advance of capital. That figure would be assessed at an eventual 50% of the amount available. Similarly the costs of the rectification proceedings should be allowed for.
Floyd J
[2009] EWHC 1920 (Ch), [2010] PNLR 3, [2009] WTLR 1339
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – DW Moore and Co Ltd v Ferrier CA 1988
moore_ferrierCA1988
A solicitor was instructed to prepare an agreement providing for the introduction of a new working director into an insurance broking business carried on by a company. His instructions called for the new director to enter into a restrictive covenant . .
Cited – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .
Cited – Allied Maples Group Ltd v Simmons and Simmons CA 12-May-1995
Lost chance claim – not mere speculative claim
Solicitors failed to advise the plaintiffs sufficiently in a property transaction. A warranty against liability for a former tenant’s obligations under leases had not been obtained. The trial judge held that, on a balance of probabilities, there was . .
Cited – Worby, Worby and Worby v Rosser CA 28-May-1999
Three potential beneficiaries sought payment from a solicitor of the costs of resisting the grant of probate to a will, saying that he had owed them a duty of care to ensure that the testator did not execute a later will in circumstances in which he . .
Cited – Cancer Research Campaign v Ernest Brown 1998
An executor does not usually owe a duty to advise a beneficiary in connection with the affairs of the beneficiary. Tax avoidance is not an idea that runs naturally or should be attributed to ordinary people or to legal executives in a small firm of . .
These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 02 June 2021; Ref: scu.368640