Topic of the month

Will construction – nil rate band legacies and exempt gifts of residue

There have recently been two cases considered by the High Court and the Court of Appeal in which the RSPCA have been involved in litigation concerning wills in which they have been named as a residuary beneficiary. The case that attracted the widest coverage in the popular press was Gill v Woodall (noted on p4) in which the will was held to be invalid, both in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, with the result that the RSPCA was unsuccessful in both courts. The Court of Appeal, however, stressed that the circumstances of that case were very unusual, something that may have contributed to the interest of the case of journalists, but makes it of less interest to Trusts and Estates practitioners. The other case, which attracted less interest in the Press, may, in fact, be of greater interest to practitioners, as it concerns the construction of a will containing a nil rate band legacy, a specific tax-free gift of a property to non-exempt beneficiaries and a gift of residue to an exempt beneficiary. The Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal of the residuary beneficiary in RSPCA v Sharp [2010] EWCA Civ 1474.