On 6th August 2003 R visited D, her elderly father. He appeared to be in poor health and was coughing. R said that she would next visit him at Christmas. D said that he did not expect to live very much longer and that he might not be alive at Christmas. D said that he wanted R to have the house when he died. He handed over to her the deeds and a key. D died intestate on 11th December 2003.
Held: The court granted a declaration that D had made a valid donatio mortis causa of his house to R.
D had made the gift in contemplation of impending death. The fact that D thought that he might die within five months and that he did in fact die five months later was sufficient to fulfil this requirement. In the context of donatio moris causa ‘dominion’ meant conditional ownership. By handing over the deeds to his daughter in the circumstances described above D delivered to her dominion over his house.
Jonathan Gaunt QC
[2013] EWHC 1449 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Disapproved – King v The Chiltern Dog Rescue and Another CA 9-Jun-2015
This is an appeal by charities who are entitled to inherit under a will against a decision that (a) the deceased transferred her house to her nephew by a donatio mortis causa, alternatively (b) the nephew is entitled to recover 75,000 pounds against . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Wills and Probate
Updated: 13 December 2021; Ref: scu.512272