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A case on the interpretation of the will of racing driver Barrie Williams has both an old-fashioned and a modern Chancery tenor. The will was drawn up by a solicitor, but included gifts to two non-existent charities 1/n
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2020/3295.html
https://www.classicandsportscar.com/obituaries/rip-barrie-whizzo-williams-1938-2018
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2020/3295.html
https://www.classicandsportscar.com/obituaries/rip-barrie-whizzo-williams-1938-2018
Cases about misnamed or non- existent charities were more common in the days when Chancery barristers wore striped trousers and bowler hats every day. Fifty years ago a judge said it was the most elementary duty of a solicitor drafting a will to get the charity’s name right 2/n
Modern professional wills usually have a charity lapse-saving clause instead, leaving the executors to solve the problem.
This case was urgent because 1. Mr Williams had a 105 year old mother who also inherited under the will, and a long-standing partner, Kathryn Marshall 3/n
This case was urgent because 1. Mr Williams had a 105 year old mother who also inherited under the will, and a long-standing partner, Kathryn Marshall 3/n
Ms Marshall is entitled to and intends to claim for reasonable provision for her maintenance under the Inheritance Act 1975, but can’t bring a claim until it is clear who the defendants, who are those entitled to inherit under clause 8 of the will, are 4/n
The claim form was issued on 28 July and judgment given on 3 December, on an application made on paper, without a hearing - all very different from the pinstriped trousers and bowler hat days of Chancery practice 5/n
There is no such thing as the BRDC Benevolent Fund, but the court accepted that Mr Williams meant the BRD Motor Sport Charity, who take the gift. The executors have to decide which charities should take the gift to “the Cancer Research Fund” 6/end
