Planning analysis: This fairly modest proposal brings up many issues which are familiar to those who are regularly involved in planning committee decisions. The judgment focuses on the planning committee’s duties to give reasons when approving a planning application, particularly where that approval is contrary to the planning case officer’s recommendation. The judge decided that this was a case where the planning committee was under a duty to give reasons for approving the planning application. There is no statutory duty for a planning authority to give reasons for granting planning permission. However, in some circumstances, public law rules of fairness dictate that reasons for an approval must be provided by an authority. The judge stated that those reasons had to be adequate and had to be articulated by members before they voted on whether or not to approve the application. The transcript of the planning committee’s debate was inadmissible as evidence of reasons for the decision. In order to give adequate reasons, members of the planning committee had to understand and set out which points, from the officer’s report and recommendation, which they disagreed with and the alternative conclusions they had reached on those points. The judge decided that they had failed to do so in this case. Written by Tracy Lovejoy, head of the planning department at Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors.

Was the missing executor a professional or lay individual? It is often clear from the description of the individual in the Will whether executors were appointed as a professional executor or were a relative or friend of the testator. If the missing executor was a professional executor it may be possible to trace them through their professional body. For example, the Law Society website has a 'Find a Solicitor' search facility which will show the current employment details of a practicing solicitor. If the professional executor cannot be traced via their professional body and appears to have ceased practising, you can contact their last known firm to find out if anyone in the practice has contact details

Was the missing executor a professional or lay individual? It is often clear from the description of the individual in the Will whether executors were appointed as a professional executor or were a relative or friend of the testator. If the missing executor was a professional executor it may be possible to trace them through their professional body. For example, the Law Society website has a 'Find a Solicitor' search facility which will show the current employment details of a practicing solicitor. If the professional executor cannot be traced via their professional body and appears to have ceased practising, you can contact their last known firm to find out if anyone in the practice has contact details to pass on a letter from you to establish contact. Someone within the firm is likely to know if the person has died and may be able to provide you with sufficient

We do not have a specific precedent with the wording requested. However, one of the points that should be brought to the attention of the Court of Protection when making the deputyship application is that all persons entitled to the same degree as the incapacitated administrator to take a grant have been cleared off, ie it has been established that they are either unwilling or unable to take the limited grant. This information could be included in Form COP1A as part of the application procedure. The Court of Protection will usually ask the solicitor

For a general overview, see our Practice Note: Payment of debts—solvent estate. The claim in this case is in contract, the deceased or his attorney or other agent acting on his behalf presumably entered into a contract with the proprietor of the nursing home that he would receive accommodation and care services in exchange for the payment of an agreed sum per week or per month. It may have been agreed that payment would be deferred until he left the nursing home or even until his death but at some point payment will have fallen due. The limitation period for such a claim is the same whether the claim were brought against the deceased in his lifetime

Excessive use The courts have held that the simple fact that there has been an increase in the volume of traffic using a right of way, does not in itself amount to excessive use of the right of way. See cases such as: Sloan v Holliday; British Railways Board v Glass; Woodhouse v Kirkwood. The express wording of the easement is what will bind the parties. Where the development of the dominant land threatens an excessive use of the easement, the court has determined that two questions must be asked: • does the development

It is common for a deed of easement granting a right of way to include a positive covenant on the part of the grantee (as the owner of the dominant tenement) to contribute towards the cost of maintenance/repair: see, for example, Schedule 4 of Precedent: Deed of easement—right of way. Ordinarily, the burden of a positive covenant will not run so as to bind successors

Public Law analysis: When consulting, the Home Secretary had provided insufficient information to permit the public a fair opportunity to participate. Accordingly, his decision to transfer a police commissioner’s powers to the elected mayor for the area, pursuant to section 107F of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Constructions Act 2009 (LDEDCA 2009), was quashed. Written by Vivienne Sedgley, barrister at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square.

Clare Ambrose, Twenty Essex We all know the crisis is fast-moving. Arrangements that seemed sensible a week ago now look unrealistic or inappropriate. As matters stand there is some certainty that any hearing listed before the end of April 2020 will be significantly disrupted by global travel restrictions and guidance on social distancing. Everyone concerned wants to reduce disruption but work safely. Tribunals will expect parties to co-operate, adapt and compromise in order to find solutions that work. My current experience is that most parties are doing this. Obstructive and tactical positions are likely to be fairly obvious and viewed unfavourably. The client will need to be briefed but constructive discussions need to be broached promptly with the other side with a view to

The grant of a lease creates a legal in a specific parcel of land for a defined term. Generally, neither the land comprised in the lease nor the length of the term may be increased without a surrender of the original lease and the grant of a new lease. If the parties to a lease attempt such a variation, their agreement will be treated in law as a surrender and re-grant, irrespective of their intention. In such a case, the extended term is a new term taking effect from the date of the surrender and re-grant. If not avoided (and there are ways), the

This Q&A assumes for the purposes of this answer that, prior to B’s death, A and B were married during their cohabitation. There have been a number of recent decisions involving allegations of fraud in the obtaining of a divorce, for example, Grasso v Naik and Bhatoo (Twenty One Irregular Divorces), Shahzad v Mazher and Randhawa v Randhawa (where the proceedings had been concealed from the wife respondent and her signature forged by the husband on the acknowledgment of service). However, it is suggested that the seminal decision is Rapisarda v Colladon, a decision

The response does not consider the tax implications for A of settling the rental property in trust. A post-8 March 1999 gift of an undivided share of land is a gift of property subject to a reservation except in the following circumstances: • the donor does not occupy the land (section 102B(3) of the Finance Act 1986 (FA 1986)), or • the donor occupies the land to the exclusion of the donee for full consideration in money or money's worth (FA 1986, s 102B(3), or • the donor occupies the land together with the donee and the donor