David Burrows reflects on the tangled legacies we leave behind
- How does the court define what is to be paid out where an issue arises between family members as to how family property should be divided up or sold?
- A family farm owned by parents and a son: who owns the farm on the parents’ death; and how does that affect the rights of other surviving siblings?
- How much ‘undue influence’ on a parent, and the signing of her will, is needed to make the will invalid?
Cases on the varied circumstances of family breakdown, family partnership and property distribution are relatively rare; then in ten weeks, four cases arrived from the Court of Appeal, all looking at different points. First were Savage v Savage [2024] EWCA Civ 49, [2024] All ER (D) 07 (Feb) and Williams v Williams & ors [2024] EWCA Civ 42, [2024] 4 WLR 10, [2024] All ER (D) 21 (Feb), where judgments were handed down on the same day (1 February 2024). The third was Rea v Rea & others [2024]
