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England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions >> Goodman v Goodman [2013] EWHC 758 (Ch) (18 January 2013) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2013/758.html Cite as: [2013] 3 All ER 490, [2013] WTLR 1181, [2014] 1 CH 186, [2014] CH 186, [2014] 1 Ch 186, [2013] 3 WLR 1551, [2013] WLR(D) 197, [2013] EWHC 758 (Ch) |
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CHANCERY DIVISION
IN THE ESTATE OF EVERARD NICHOLAS GOODMAN DECEASED
7 Rolls Buildings Fetter Lane London EC4A 1NL |
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B e f o r e :
____________________
(1) MICHAEL PAUL GOODMAN | ||
(2) DAVID JEREMY GOODMAN | ||
(Executors of the late Everard Nicholas Goodman) | Appellants/Claimants | |
- and - | ||
(1) MINA GOODMAN | ||
(2) SUZANNE JUDITH GOODMAN | ||
(Executrixes of the late Everard Nicholas Goodman) | Respondents/Defendants |
____________________
8th Floor, 165 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2DY
Tel No: 020 7421 4036 Fax No: 020 7404 1424
Web: www.merrillcorp.com/mls Email: [email protected]
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
MR T MOWSCHENSON QC appeared on behalf of the First Defendant
MR R DEW appeared on behalf of the Second Defendant
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Crown Copyright ©
"Where an application relating to the estate of a deceased person is made to the High Court under this subsection by or on behalf of a personal representative of the deceased or a beneficiary of the estate, the court may in its discretion—
(a) appoint a person (in this section called a substituted personal representative) to act as personal representative of the deceased in place of the existing personal representative or representatives of the deceased or any of them; or
(b) if there are two or more existing personal representatives of the deceased, terminate the appointment of one or more, but not all, of those persons."
Subsection (2) deals with the status of someone appointed as a "substituted personal representative". It states:
"Where the court appoints a person to act as a substituted personal representative of a deceased person, then—
(a) if that person is appointed to act with an executor or executors the appointment shall (except for the purpose of including him in any chain of representation) constitute him executor of the deceased as from the date of the appointment; and
(b) in any other case the appointment shall constitute that person administrator of the deceased's estate as from the date of the appointment."
"Before considering changes in the law we think it would be helpful to set out in outline the remedies which are available at the moment to a beneficiary who is dissatisfied with the actions of the personal representative. The time honoured remedy of an administration action, in which the Court, in effect, takes over the whole administration of the estate is still available; it is, however, an extremely clumsy, costly and time consuming procedure and in practice it is only in wholly exceptional cases that its use can be recommended. In practical terms, in the kind of case we are considering, the beneficiary's main remedy is to apply to the court for the appointment of a judicial trustee under section 1(1) of the Judicial Trustees Act 1896. The object of this statute is to provide a middle course in cases where the administration of the estate by the ordinary trustees has broken down and it is not desired to put the estate to the expense of a full administration. We are not aware of any case where this remedy has been adopted and found unsatisfactory".
"Where application is made to the court by or on behalf of the person creating or intending to create a trust, or by or on behalf of a trustee or beneficiary, the court may, in its discretion, appoint a person (in this Act called a judicial trustee) to be a trustee of that trust, either jointly with any other person or as sole trustee, and, if sufficient cause is shown, in place of all or any existing trustees".
Subsection (2) extends the Act to personal representatives. It provides:
"The administration of the property of a deceased person, whether a testator or intestate, shall be a trust, and the executor or administrator a trustee, within the meaning of this Act".
"(1) If by reason of any special circumstances it appears to the High Court to be necessary or expedient to appoint as administrator some person other than the person who, but for this section, would in accordance with probate rules have been entitled to the grant, the court may in its discretion appoint as administrator such person as it thinks expedient.
(2) Any grant of administration under this section may be limited in any way the court thinks fit".
a. Section 50 confers a power to replace or remove a "personal representative". As the definition in section 55 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 illustrates, the term "personal representative" encompasses both an executor and an administrator. An administrator derives title from his appointment as such by the Court; there can therefore be no question of his being replaced or removed in advance of the grant of letters of administration. In contrast, an executor derives title from the will, and the property of the deceased vests in him from the moment of the testator's death (see e.g. Williams, Mortimer and Sunnucks on Executors, Administrators and Probate, at paragraph 8-02). Robert Goff J referred to the relevant law in these terms in Redwood Music Ltd v B. Feldman & Co. Ltd. [1979] RPC 1 (at page 5):
"Of course, if it becomes necessary for the executors to prove title to the property, a grant of probate must be produced, because only by virtue of such a grant can the will (and therefore the executors' title) be proved in a court of law. Only by such means, to use the vivid words of Jervis, C.J. in Johnson v. Warwick (1856) 17 C.B. 516 at 522, has the court 'the legal optics through which to look at [the will]'. If a grant of probate is not obtained until after the date of commencement of the proceedings, this does not mean that the executors cannot prove their title as at that date; their title has derived from the will, not from the grant of probate, and provided that the death of the testator occurred before the date of commencement of the proceedings, it makes no difference that the proof of their title, i.e. the grant of probate, came into existence at a later date";
b. Section 50 does not expressly confine the executors who can be replaced or removed under the section to those who have been granted probate. Further, the definition of "will" is not limited to a document of which probate has already been granted (see section 56);
c. It is true that there will be a considerable overlap between section 116 of the Senior Courts Act and section 50 of the 1985 Act if the latter is construed as covering executors who have not proved. It cannot, however, be inferred that Parliament did not intend such an overlap. A comparable overlap exists between section 50 and the Judicial Trustees Act, and Parliament must have intended that;
d. On the defendants' interpretation of section 50, "special circumstances" would be required before a person who had not proved could be replaced or removed (see section 116 of the Senior Courts Act), but there would be no similar requirement in the case of a person who had been granted probate. I cannot see why Parliament should have wanted it to be easier to replace or remove a person who had obtained probate. Before the Judicial Trustees Act was passed, the reverse was the case. An executor who had not proved could sometimes be passed over, but someone to whom probate had been granted could not be removed;
e. Mr Romie Tager QC, who appeared for the claimants, argued that construing section 50 in the way for which the defendants contend would give rise to oddities. He suggested that the phrase "terminate the appointment", which is to be found in section 50(1)(b), is not appropriate in the context of an executor who has not proved. He submitted, too, that it would be curious if the Court could appoint someone to act alongside executors to whom probate had not been granted. He further contended that a person named as an executor would be entitled to obtain probate under rule 20 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 even though a substituted personal representative had been appointed in his place under section 50. For my part, however, I do not find these points persuasive. To begin with the last point, I cannot see how a person replaced as a personal representative could claim probate under rule 20 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules; he would no longer be a personal representative. Further, I cannot see how any insuperable problems would arise from the application of section 50 to non-proving executors; the Practice Direction supplementing Part 57 of the Civil Procedure Rules, to which I shall refer again in a moment, deals with the application of the section in that context. Moreover, I can see no absurdity in speaking of the appointment of a non-proving executor being "terminated": such a person will already have been "appointed" as an executor, by the will.
"There is nothing in the wording of s 50 to preclude an application for the removal (or substitution) of an executor before a grant has issued; but equally there is nothing in that wording to allow such an application in respect of an administrator (who, before a grant, ex hypothesi does not exist)".
Part III of Practice Direction 57, which governs applications for substitution or removal of a personal representative, caters for cases in which "the claim is to substitute or remove an executor and is made before a grant of probate has been issued" (see paragraphs 13.1(1)(b) and 14.3 of the Practice Direction).
"The first question is: who is entitled to apply under these sections? So far as section 50 is concerned, the answer so far as this case is concerned, is: a person who 'under the will of the deceased' is beneficially interested in the estate. The natural meaning of the quoted phrase is a person named in (or one of a class identified in) the will which has been admitted to probate. That, after all, will be the will in relation to which the impugned personal representative has been appointed. Moreover, the use of the definite article ('the' will) seems to me to presuppose that there is only one relevant will. The foundation is not, however, named in Agnes's 1995 will as a beneficiary. It claims its beneficial entitlement under the doctrine of mutual wills".
Mr Tager drew attention to the words "which has been admitted to probate". It seems to me, however, that Lewison J was doing no more than making the point that a person applying under section 50 as a "beneficiary" must be beneficially interested under "the operative will of the deceased whose personal representative is sought to be removed" (to quote from paragraph 22 of the judgment). Lewison J was not concerned with, and was saying nothing about, whether section 50 applies to an executor who has not proved.
"[Mr. Perotti] also asks me to remove Mr. Impanni as executor. I have some doubt as to whether I have any jurisdiction under s.50 [of the Administration of Justice Act 1985] to remove a non-proving executor. However, I find it unnecessary to decide that question because I anyway consider that there is no justification for removing Mr. Impanni. He is now in his 80s, he has not obtained probate, [Mr. Perotti] himself recognises that it is highly unlikely that he will ever seek to do so and, so long as Mr. Watson or someone else is in the saddle as attorney-administrator, Mr. Impanni is precluded from interfering in the administration. Even if I do have any jurisdiction to remove Mr. Impanni, I propose to exercise my discretion against exercising it".
"Mr Impanni was appointed as executor of the deceased's English will but he never proved it. The judge had some doubt as to whether he had jurisdiction under section 50 to remove a non-proving executor. In my view, if an executor named in a will has not proved it, there is nothing from which to remove him. The judge found it unnecessary to decide that question because he considered that there was in any event no justification for removing Mr Impanni. In that respect his exercise of discretion was again unimpeachable. I would affirm his decision on this point also".
"On the hearing of Mr. Perotti's appeal to the Court of Appeal, the court's expressed view was that if a named executor has not proved the will, there is nothing from which to remove him".