Court defines meaning of UK assets in dispute over man’s will

The Court of Appeal has defined the meaning of ‘UK assets’ in a dispute over a man’s will involving his wife and his children.

Ingrid Fraser, Solicitor in our Wills, Probate & Inheritance team reports on this recent case.

The deceased had been living in Russia where he had substantial assets. In 2013, he made a will in the UK, where he also had assets.

The will defined his estate as meaning his property, money and investments in the UK.

They were to be shared equally between his two children. He died in July 2018, leaving assets in both the UK and Jersey. No will dealing with the Jersey assets had ever been found.

The wife appealed against a court decision that ‘the UK’ included Jersey.

The Court of Appeal ruled against her.

It pointed out that Jersey was not an independent state in international law. The UK government was responsible for its international relations and defence. However, for the purposes of domestic legislation it was not part of the UK.

It was a principle of law that if one realistic interpretation would result in the contract being invalid and another realistic interpretation would result in it being valid, the court should prefer the latter.

The court should consider the case in that light and try to interpret the will so as to avoid intestacy.

It was unlikely that the deceased had intended to die wholly or partially intestate; his intention therefore must have been to make a will which dealt with his assets in Jersey. No other candidate for such a will had been found.

The phrase “the United Kingdom” could include the Channel Islands in this case.

The deceased’s intention was beyond doubt. He had informed his solicitor that he was arranging for wills dealing with his assets in other countries and in the absence of evidence that he made any other will dealing with his Jersey assets, the only plausible inference was that he understood and intended that the UK will included them. Where the will used the abbreviation UK, it included Jersey.

If you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of wills and probate, please contact Ingrid on 01434 320362.