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Wills and probate

15 February 2007 / Paola Fudakowska , Abigail Palmer-page , Paul Hewitt
Issue: 7260 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
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VALID TESTAMENTARY GIFTS >>
ESTATE ADMINISTRATION COSTS >>
BOUNTY HUNTERS >>

FROM HMRC

Practitioners should be aware that as Capital Taxes no longer exists as an entity, in future it will be known as HM Revenue & Customs Inheritance Tax and, over time, all references to Capital Taxes, CT and CTO will be removed from letters, forms and guidance.

CONSTRUCTION
Gibbs v Harding [2007] EWHC 3 (Ch), [2007] All ER (D) 28 (Jan)

Sister Joseph Harding made a will dated 25 March 2003 which included the following provision:

‘I…wish to revoke my last will and testimony made previous to todays (sic) date…If I should die in the meantime before making another will it is my wish that everything I possess be taken over by the Diocese of Westminster to hold in trust for the Black community of Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Tower Hamlet (sic).’

The question was whether this paragraph created a valid testamentary gift.
On 4 November 2002 Sister Joseph had made a will which left the residue of her estate to

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Arc Pensions Law—Ian D’Costa

Arc Pensions Law—Ian D’Costa

Pensions firm welcomes legal director in London

Shakespeare Martineau—Jonathan Warren

Shakespeare Martineau—Jonathan Warren

Real estate disputes team strengthened by London partner hire

Morgan Lewis—Christian Tuddenham

Morgan Lewis—Christian Tuddenham

Litigation partner joins disputes team in London

NEWS
Government plans for offender ‘restriction zones’ risk creating ‘digital cages’ that blur punishment with surveillance, warns Henrietta Ronson, partner at Corker Binning, in this week's issue of NLJ
Louise Uphill, senior associate at Moore Barlow LLP, dissects the faltering rollout of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 in this week's NLJ
Judgments are ‘worthless without enforcement’, says HHJ Karen Walden-Smith, senior circuit judge and chair of the Civil Justice Council’s enforcement working group. In this week's NLJ, she breaks down the CJC’s April 2025 report, which identified systemic flaws and proposed 39 reforms, from modernising procedures to protecting vulnerable debtors
Writing in NLJ this week, Katherine Harding and Charlotte Finley of Penningtons Manches Cooper examine Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26, the Supreme Court ruling that narrowed what counts as matrimonial property, and its potential impact upon claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
In this week's NLJ, Dr Jon Robins, editor of The Justice Gap and lecturer at Brighton University, reports on a campaign to posthumously exonerate Christine Keeler. 60 years after her perjury conviction, Keeler’s son Seymour Platt has petitioned the king to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy, arguing she was a victim of violence and moral hypocrisy, not deceit. Supported by Felicity Gerry KC, the dossier brands the conviction 'the ultimate in slut-shaming'
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