Paola Fudakowska & Henrietta Mason provide a wills & probate update
- Will construction case regarding the scope of the definition of ‘grandchildren’.
- Appeal of an award to a cohabitant under the I(PFD) Act 1975.
H and v George [2017] EWHC 533 (Ch), [2017] All ER (D) 147 (Mar) considers if the definition of ‘grandchildren’ in the testator’s will should include adopted grandchildren.
Henry Hand (HH) died in 1947. His will gave life interests to his three children, with the remainder to their own children in equal shares. At the time of trial his children were all dead. His daughter had had two biological children (the defendants) and one of his sons had adopted two children (the claimants) in 1948 and 1950 respectively.
The provision of HH’s will which stated that the remainder of his residue should pass to his children’s ‘children’ was in dispute. The claimants advanced that the definition of children should be interpreted to include adopted children. The defendants argued that the interpretation of ‘children’ was restricted to ‘biological children’
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