In a recent
High Court case it was held that the creditor of an estate beneficiary was not
able bring a probate claim against a deceased’s estate.
In Randall
v Randall [2014] a mother had appointed her daughter as the main
beneficiary of her estate under her will. Before the mother died, the daughter
had entered into a consent order with her former husband to share part of any
gifts that she might receive from her mother. This would include any gift left
by her mother’s will. Following the mother’s death, the former husband sought
to dispute the validity of the deceased’s will and to revoke the grant of
probate taken out by the daughter.
As the former
husband was merely a creditor of a beneficiary under the estate, the court found
that he did not have a sufficient interest in the estate or sufficient legal
standing to bring a claim under Civil Procedure Rule 57 (the rules that govern
contentious probate claims). In fact, the judge went on to say that even a
direct creditor of the estate would not have sufficient interest in the estate
for the purposes of the Civil Procedure Rules, thereby re-establishing a 19th
century common law principle.
This case not
only provides useful confirmation of who can bring a contentious probate claim
under the Civil Procedure Rules but it also highlights the importance of
joining third parties, such as parents, into consent orders when they are
drafted if at all possible.