Michael Tringham reviews some recent court decisions at home & abroad
The relationship of cohabitants Tina Cattle and Paul John Evans ended on 23 March 1990, when 59-year-old Mr Evans died—intestate. Subsequently Ms Cattle claimed “reasonable provision” from the deceased’s £220,000 estate, referring to a will drafted three days before his death but never executed. Mr Evans’s sons Paul and Gareth, beneficiaries on the intestacy, disputed her claim.
The couple lived together in England, Spain and latterly Wales between 1990 and 2009—albeit with a two-year hiatus after 1997. The trial transcript (Cattle v Evans [2011] EWHC 945 (Ch)) refers to a marriage proposal that was never formalised—and the planned purchase of a home in Wales with money from the sale of a jointly owned Spanish property. But that plan was overtaken by the deceased’s being diagnosed with terminal cancer eight months before his death. Instead he bought the house almost entirely with his own money and the property was conveyed into his sole name, apparently for tax reasons.
While solicitors’ attendance notes
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