Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2002] All ER (D) 249 (Apr)
Court: Chancery Division
Judge:

David Donaldson QC sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court
Representation Andrew Child (instructed by Brignalls Balderston Warren, Letchworth) for the claimant.
  Susannah Meadway (instructed by Trott & Gentry) for the first defendant.
Judgment Dates: 25 April 2002

Catchwords

Will - Mutual wills - Identical terms - Husband and wife - Husband and wife making wills on same date in similar terms leaving property to claimant - Wife dying - Husband partially transferring property to first defendant - Claimant alleging husband's actions constituting fraud on wife - Whether property held on constructive trust for claimant.

The Case

Equity could, where two parties had agreed as to the disposal of property by will and had executed wills containing provisions to that end, intervene by imposing a constructive trust in favour of the beneficiary under the original will. In the instant case, it was entirely inequitable now to frustrate the wife's expectations and it was unconscionable for the husband to seek to do so by his actions after her death in seeking to pass the property on to the first defendant. Accordingly, the first defendant held the property subject to the equitable interest of the claimant.

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