Negligent administration of will

Chappell v Somers & Blake (a firm) (ChD TLR 2 September)

The claimant was the sole executrix of a will, in which the deceased left the residue of her estate to a parochial church council. The residue included two properties. The executrix instructed the defendant solicitors to act on her behalf in the administration of the estate and she alleged that between 1996 and 2001 they did nothing at all regarding the administration of the estate. The solicitors sought to defend the executrix’s claim that the estate had been deprived of income from the properties, either as rental income or from the proceeds of sale, on the grounds that as she was not a beneficiary under the will she had suffered no loss.