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07 August 2015 / Henrietta Mason , Paola Fudakowska
Issue: 7664 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
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Setting things straight

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Henrietta Mason & Paola Fudakowska return with a wills & probate update

The tabloids picked up on the case of Dellal v Dellal [2015] EWHC 907 (Fam), [2015] All ER (D) 43 (Apr), involving the estate of high rolling gambler Jack Dellal and his former beauty queen wife. The case deals with procedural questions and is a useful reminder of the differences between, and principles of, applications for summary judgment and strike out. So what can practitioners learn from it?

Lessons from Dellal

In Dellal , the court refused to strike out or determine by summary judgment the claimant widow’s claim for provision from the deemed net estate of her husband under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act).

Mr Dellal was a very wealthy property tycoon, listed in The Sunday Times Rich List as worth around £445m in the year he died and (tabloid reports would have it) prone to gambling away £1m in a single night in the casinos of Mayfair and Monaco.

He died in 2012,

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