| PROBATE — Practice — Interest in estate — Claimant dependant of deceased having right to bring statutory claim for provision from deceased’s estate — Claimant bringing probate claim challenging validity of will — Claimant’s probate claim struck out — Claimant appealing — Whether claimant’s statutory claim amounting to sufficient “interest” in estate to bring probate claim — CPR r 57.7(1)
O’Brien v Seagrave and another [2007] EWHC 788 (Ch)
Ch D: Judge Mackie QC, sitting as a High Court judge: 4 April 2007
A claimant who had a right to bring a statutory claim for provision from the deceased’s estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 could be said to have a sufficient “interest” in the estate to permit her to proceed with a probate claim under CPR r 57.7(1).
Judge Mackie QC so held in the Chancery Division in allowing an appeal by the claimant, Julia O’Brien, against an order made by Master Price on 2 November 2006, striking out her probate claim against the first and second defendants, Lee Seagrave and Jeanette Seagrave, because her claim form failed to disclose reasonable grounds for bringing such a claim and failed to comply with CPR r 57.7(1), which required that the claim form in a probate claim had to “contain a statement of the nature of the interest of the claimant … in the estate”.
The claimant was the partner of the deceased, Derek Seagrave. The second defendant was his former wife and the first defendant was her son. Some time after the deceased’s death, the defendants produced a will and obtained a grant of probate. The beneficiaries under the will were the first defendant and his children. The claimant brought a statutory claim for provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. She also brought an action against the defendants, seeking a declaration that the will was invalid, that the deceased died intestate and requesting that probate be revoked on the ground that the will was forged or was obtained by undue influence. The defendants objected to the probate claim on the ground that the claimant did not have an “interest” to bring a claim for the purposes of CPR r 57.7(1), because even if her claim was successful, she would gain no possible interest in the estate, which would pass to the deceased’s brother.
JUDGE MACKIE QC said that it was true that a judgment for the claimant would not, of itself, produce an immediate financial result, but that was true of other areas of litigation where a claimant was permitted to go ahead with a claim, for example, claims for a declaration. If the claim fell more generally within the CPR and not within the probate jurisdiction, then the claimant would be recognised as having a sufficient interest so as to be able to seek a declaration. Accordingly, the term “interest” in CPR 57.7(1) should be construed so as to include someone with a right to bring an Inheritance Act claim and the appeal would be allowed.
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