Anna Myfanwy St Clair v Nicholas Hilton King
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Cawson |
| Judgment Date | 12 January 2022 |
| Neutral Citation | [2022] EWHC 40 (Ch) |
| Docket Number | Case No: HC-2016-000523 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
[2022] EWHC 40 (Ch)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
PROPERTY TRUSTS AND PROBATE LIST (Ch)
IN THE ESTATE OF JEAN EILEEN LECH (DECEASED)
Rolls Building
Fetter Lane
London, EC4A 1NL
His Honour Judge Cawson QC
Sitting as a Judge of the High Court
Case No: HC-2016-000523
The Claimant appeared in person (by videolink)
Kathryn Purkis (instructed by Kiteleys) for the Defendants
Hearing dates: 7–10, and 13–16 December 2021
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
The date and time for hand-down is deemed to be 10.00 a.m. on 12 January 2022
His Honour Judge Cawson QC:
| CONTENTS | PARAGRAPH |
| Introduction | 1 |
| Key participants in the relevant events | 10 |
| Background | 22 |
| The issues to be determined | 84 |
| The evidential landscape | 89 |
| Credibility and reliability of the witnesses | 97 |
| Dynamics of the main relationships | 107 |
| Mutual Wills | 118 |
| The Law | 118 |
| Ms St Clair's case | 122 |
| Has Ms St Clair established that the 2007 Will was a mutual will? | 124 |
| Conclusion regarding mutual wills | 132 |
| Contract to make and not revoke a will in the terms of the 2007 Will | 133 |
| Undue influence/fraudulent calumny | 136 |
| Introduction | 136 |
| Ms St Clair's case as to fraudulent calumny | 139 |
| Legal principles | 144 |
| Is Ms St Clair's case of fraudulent calumny made out? | 153 |
| Conclusion regarding fraudulent calumny | 158 |
| Testamentary capacity | 162 |
| Introduction | 162 |
| Legal Principles | 168 |
| Did Mrs Lech lack capacity? | 169 |
| Conclusion as to testamentary capacity | 180 |
| Want of knowledge and approval | 181 |
| Introduction | 181 |
| Legal principles | 183 |
| Did Mrs Lech know and approve the contents of the 2009 Will? | 184 |
| Conclusion in respect of want of knowledge and approval | 187 |
| Overall conclusion in respect of Ms St Clair's claim | 188 |
| Counterclaim | 189 |
Introduction
This case concerns a challenge to the last will dated 20 May 2009 (“ the 2009 Will”) of the late Jean Eileen Lech (“ Mrs Lech”), brought by her stepdaughter, Anna Myfanwy St Clair (“ Ms St Clair”).
Ms St Clair is the daughter, by an earlier marriage, of Mrs Lech's late husband, Zbigniew Lech (“ Mr Lech”), who predeceased her.
Ms St Clair is aggrieved by the fact that by the 2009 Will Mrs Lech has left the residue of her estate, which Ms St Clair considers derived entirely from Mr Lech's efforts and resources, to the First Defendant, Nicholas Hilton King (“ Mr King”), who Ms St Clair regards as, at worst, an impostor, and at best a distant relative, introduced to Mrs Lech by the Second Defendant, June Marion Farrell (“ Mrs Farrell”), shortly prior to Mrs Lech making the 2009 Will.
Mr King and Mrs Farrell were named as executors by the 2009 Will, and Mrs Farrell and her children receive legacies of £10,000 (the gift to the children being a joint gift) thereunder.
Ms St Clair seeks to challenge the 2009 Will on the grounds that:
i) The terms thereof are subject to the terms of an earlier will made by Mrs Lech on 1 November 2007 (“ the 2007 Will”), which such will Ms St Clair alleges was made as a mutual will contemporaneously with a will made by Mr Lech, with both Mr Lech's and Mrs Lech's wills benefiting Ms St Clair and her daughter, Carmen Lech (“ Carmen”);
ii) The 2009 Will was executed under the undue influence of Mrs Farrell, or more precisely and as the case was, subject to a pleading point, refined for trial, that the execution of the 2009 Will was induced by a fraudulent calumny on the part of Mrs Farrell, acting in league with Mr King;
iii) Mrs Lech lacked testamentary capacity at the time that she made the 2009 Will; and
iv) The 2009 Will was made with a want of knowledge and approval on the part of Mrs Lech.
In addition, Ms St Clair maintains that Mrs Lech entered into a contract with her prior to the execution of the 2007 whereby Mrs Lech, in consideration for Ms St Clair procuring Mr Lech to leave his shares to Mrs Lech, agreed to leave her estate as provided for by the 2007 Will, i.e., with both Ms St Clair and Carmen benefiting as provided for thereby.
Ms St Clair now appears in person, having been legally represented at earlier stages of the present proceedings. She resides in Australia and given her age (72) and financial resources and having regard to the difficulties created by the Covid 19 pandemic, directions were given for the trial to proceed on a hybrid basis, with Ms St Clair attending by video link, using the MS Teams platform, from Australia. One of the other witnesses, Margaret Ann Kirby (“ Mrs Kirby”), also gave evidence remotely by video link. The other witnesses, Mr King and Mrs Farrell, gave evidence in person in court, as did Rosalind Paterson-Morgan (“ Mrs Paterson-Morgan”) although her evidence was completed remotely after her evidence went into a second day.
Given the time difference with Australia, sittings were limited to 9.30am to 12.00 noon each day, hence the trial extending over eight days.
As I have mentioned, Ms St Clair appeared in person. The Defendants were represented by Ms Kathryn Purkis of Counsel. I am grateful to them both for their helpful written and oral submissions.
Key participants in the relevant events
Mr Lech was born in 1907 in Lvov, Poland (now Ukraine). He served in the Polish military in WWII, before being captured and serving as a prisoner of war. After WWII, he moved to the UK and worked as an architect, having previously qualified as an architect in Poland. In that capacity, from the early 1950s, he was employed by the London Regional Hospital Board earning a good salary. He retired in the early 1970s, receiving a generous lump sum, and an index linked public sector pension. Mr Lech died on 20 October 2008.
Mr Lech's first marriage was in 1932 in Poland. There was one issue of that marriage, Jerzy Lech (“ Jerzy”), from whom Mr Lech was estranged for many years prior to his death. Jerzy has one daughter, Lisa. Mr Lech's first marriage was dissolved in 1939. Mr Lech remarried having moved to the UK, marrying Mona Margaret Roberts in 1949. There were two issue of this marriage, Ms St Clair born in 1949, and her brother Robert John, who at all relevant times has been in a care home. The only other identified blood relatives of Mr Lech are his granddaughter Carmen, Carmen's own two children, and four nieces, Helena, Aleksandra, Theresa and Janina.
Mr Lech's marriage to Mona Margaret broke down in about 1953, and was annulled in about 1960, apparently because Mr Lech's divorce papers relating to his first marriage in Poland were not recognised in the UK.
Mr Lech met Mrs Lech in about 1968, and it is understood that Mrs Lech moved into Mr Lech's flat in Earls Court the following year. Mr Lech and Mrs Lech married in 1979, after Mrs Lech had divorced her own first husband. There was no issue of the marriage.
On the breakdown of her parents' marriage, Ms St Clair was brought up by her mother. She moved with her mother to Australia in 1966, but it is her evidence that she returned to London in 1968 due to issues regarding her mother's mental health. She says that thereafter, at his invitation, she lived for a while with Mr Lech at his Earls Court flat. Although Ms St Clair lived with Mr Lech, and subsequently with Mr and Mrs Lech, from time to time over succeeding years, Ms St Clair has spent significant periods of time living abroad, including in Oregon, USA, New Zealand and Australia. Her daughter, Carmen, was born in 1975.
Mrs Lech was born in 1932. Her maiden name was King, and she had a brother Peter King (who was born in 1933 and died, in Singapore, in 2007), and a sister, Irene. At the time that she met Mr Lech, Mrs Lech was married to Wiktor Noworyta, whose name she had taken.
In 1972, Mr Lech sold his flat in Earls Court, and 29 Kenilworth Ave, Wimbledon (“ Kenilworth Avenue”) was acquired as a matrimonial home in the joint names of Mr Lech and Mrs Lech. Ms St Clair has alleged that it was initially intended that Kenilworth Avenue be acquired in the joint names of Mr and Mrs Lech and Ms St Clair, and that the whole of the deposit for the purchase of Kenilworth Avenue, and all subsequent mortgage instalments were provided by Mr Lech. In 1976, and according to Ms St Clair using the lump sum obtained on Mr Lech's retirement, 36 Telford Avenue, Streatham (“ 36 Telford Avenue”) was acquired in Mr and Mrs Lech's joint names. According to Ms St Clair, 36 Telford Avenue was purchased for only £12,000, a reflection of its then distressed condition and the fact that it contained sitting tenants. Kenilworth Avenue was sold in 1986, whereupon Mr and Mrs Lech moved to 36 Telford Avenue. 36 Telford Avenue was Mr and Mrs Lech's matrimonial home until Mr Lech's death on 27 October 2008. 36 Telford Avenue is now thought to be worth approximately £2 million, and her interest therein is the largest asset in Mrs Lech's estate.
Although 36 Telford Avenue became Mr and Mrs Lech's matrimonial home, rooms thereat continued to be let out to tenants, usually to three or four Polish girls. In addition, Carmen has, at all relevant times, lived at 36 Telford Avenue, with her own children. Whilst Carmen used to live with her partner, Laurent Andrjewski, she now lives with a man called Didi. Despite...
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...there remain doubts about capacity in the light of all the evidence. If so, the ‘golden rule’ should be applied: St Clair v King [2022] EWHC 40 (Ch) at [168]. Knowledge and approval 26 The relevant principles are: (1) The maker's knowledge and approval of the contents of the will is part o......