Healey v Brown
A mutual wills agreement relating to land must satisfy the formalities for contracts for the sale of land, but a constructive trust may still arise.
Facts
Mr and Mrs Brown made mirror wills leaving their flat to each other, and then to Mrs Brown's niece. They had agreed not to revoke their wills. After Mrs Brown died, Mr Brown transferred the flat into the joint names of himself and his son, so that it would pass to his son by survivorship. After Mr Brown's death, the niece claimed the flat.
Legal principle
David Donaldson QC, sitting as a deputy judge, held that the agreement was a contract for the disposition of an interest in land, so it was void under section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 because it was not signed by both parties. However, a constructive trust arose to give effect to the mutual wills, which was preserved by section 2(5), and the son held the half share that passed to him by survivorship on trust for the niece.
Related cases on secret trusts and mutual wills
- Blackwell v Blackwell [1929] AC 318
- Re Boyes (1884) 26 Ch D 531
- Re Cleaver [1981] 1 WLR 939
- Re Gardner (No 2) [1923] 2 Ch 230
- Re Goodchild [1997] 1 WLR 1216
- Kasperbauer v Griffith [2000] WTLR 333
- Re Keen [1937] Ch 236
- McCormick v Grogan (1869) LR 4 HL 82
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