PT-2024-BRS-000056 - [2025] EWHC 2325 (Ch)

This is my judgment on the claimants’ application made by notice dated 23 July 2025 for various orders relating to the respondent. The respondent carries on a will-writing business. It is not a party to the underlying claim. That underlying claim relates to two wills, at least one of which was prepared by the respondent, for the deceased, David Ivey, in 1994 and 2009. The claim is to revoke letters of administration, alternatively to rectify one or other of the wills. It was made by claim form under Part 8 of the CPR, issued on 20 May 2024 against two defendants, both of whom have acknowledged service. The particulars of claim were attached to the claim form, and are also dated 20 May 2024.

The first defendant, being named as a beneficiary under the 2009 will, obtained a grant of administration with that will annexed on 23 November 2023. The second defendant was named as a beneficiary under the 1994 will, but not the 2009 will. The claimants would be entitled to the estate of the deceased on intestacy. They say that indeed he did die intestate, on the grounds that (i) he neither knew nor approved of the contents of the 2009 will, and (ii) the only surviving copy of the 1993 will is not executed, so it is assumed that it never was. But they also claim under their late father, who was named as a beneficiary under the 1994 will, but not under the 2009 will. They say that, if the 1994 will is valid, it should be rectified so as to show their father benefiting to a greater extent than there written, but that, if the 2009 will is valid, then it too should be rectified so as to show their father benefiting in the same way as under the 1994 will (as rectified).

In order to make all these interlocking claims intelligible, I need to set out some brief family details. George Ivey and his wife, both now long deceased, had three sons, Russell, Gerald and David. Russell died in 2005, leaving four children, the claimants in the claim. Gerald died in 2020 without issue. Gerald’s wife Jean died in 2021. David died in 2023, unmarried and without issue. George Ivey had a brother, whose name is not given in the papers. This brother had two daughters, the first defendant and Nolen (who died in 2017, without issue). So, the claimants are the deceased’s (only) nephews and niece, whereas the first defendant is his surviving first cousin. Therefore, on David’s intestacy the claimants would take his estate to the exclusion of the first defendant.

As I have said, the first defendant has filed an acknowledgement of service. She contests the claim, and has also filed a witness statement. The second defendant’s acknowledgement of service says

“I do not need to be in the claim unless the 2009 will is deemed invalid”.

She took no part in the hearing before me. She wrote a letter to the claimant’s solicitors dated 22 August 2025, saying that she was not a claimant or a beneficiary and that the testator didn’t speak to her about the wills and she knew nothing about them. She concluded her letter by saying “I’ve got nothing to say about the wills.”