Henrietta Mason & Paola Fudakowska provide a wills & probate update
“Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards.”
This update deals with two recent decisions under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act), both of which were brought by widows who were unsuccessful in their claims.
Kebbeh v Farmer
Kebbeh v Farmer [2015] EWHC 3827 (Ch), [2015] All ER (D) 257 (Dec) addressed the question of domicile in a spouse 1975 Act claim.
Malcolm Mitchell had a domicile of origin in England, where he was married and had two daughters. By 1994 this marriage had been dissolved and he was based primarily in Gambia.
In 1999 he met the claimant, Haddy Kebbeh, a Gambian citizen 30 years his junior. They married in a Muslim ceremony in 2000 and Mitchell’s third child, Jennifer, was born in England in 2001. There were difficulties in the marriage from a relatively early stage. On 5 May 2006 Mr Mitchell made a will leaving his residuary estate to be divided equally between
