Time Limits In Inheritance Act Claims – Sargeant v Sargeant & Anor

A recent case in the High Court has highlighted the importance for potential beneficiaries to act quickly should they wish to challenge the contents of a party’s Will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

The Act is designed to allow certain claimants, who do not believe that reasonable financial provision has been made for them under the deceased’s Will, to make a claim. The categories of claimant includes:

• Spouses;
• Children;
• Cohabitants; and
• Any other person who was being maintained financially by the deceased person.

Usually, claims have to be brought within six months of the date of the Grant of Probate of the estate. It is possible to seek to apply to the Court for permission to bring a claim out of time, however this permission is only granted in limited circumstances, and the case of Sargeant v Sargeant & Anor [2018] EWHC 8 (Ch) highlights this rule.

Sargeant v Sargeant & Anor

Case background

In this case, the claimant was refused permission to bring a claim pursuant to section 2 of the Act, as it was held by the Judge that her claim was over ten years’ out of time.

Mary Sargeant was married to Joe Sargeant for 45 years at the time of his death in 2005. Mr Sargeant owned almost all the assets in the marriage, which included a significant amount of land, and his estate was worth over £3.2 million when he died (though by 2017, the value was approximately £8 million). In his final Will, which was executed in 2002, Mr Sargeant left his guns and fishing equipment to his son Jeff, and the balance of his personal chattels, including the benefit of a life policy worth £75,000, to Mrs Sargeant. The remainder of his estate was left to his Executors as Trustees under the terms of a discretionary Trust. The class of potential beneficiaries was limited to Mary, the parties’ daughter Jane and any of Jane’s children.

After Joe’s death in 2005, Mrs Sargeant entered into a financial arrangement whereby she received a salary from the Trust as well as further money for expenses, but by 2009 Mrs Sargeant was suffering from financial difficulties and her salary was insufficient to meet her needs. Her financial difficulties persisted and, despite negotiations, a resolution with the Trustees could not be found. Mrs Sargeant then issued proceedings under the Act in 2016 for financial provision from the estate under the Act.

It was agreed between the parties that Mrs Sargeant was entitled to bring a claim under the Act but that the Court’s permission was required, given that the claim was brought out of time (as section 4 of the Act provides for a six month time limit from the date of the grant of probate in respect of Mr Sargeant’s Will, which had been obtained by the Executors in 2006).

The decision

The Judge declined to allow Mrs Sargeant’s claim to proceed out of time after deciding that Mrs Sargeant had not made out a sufficient case that it would be just and right for her to continue. The Judge accepted that Mrs Sargeant had at least an arguable claim and recognised the financial difficulties she had suffered from for several years, however, he concluded that she’d had the opportunity to seek legal advice on many occasions following Mr Sargeant’s death, yet chose not to do so.

The Judge subsequently held that it “would not be right” to give Mrs Sargeant permission to bring the claim because she “took her own decision” to continue to work within the arrangement provided for her by the Will rather than to explore whether she had any alternative options in varying the arrangement and had maintained the arrangement over a significant period anyway. The Judge held that the “very extensive delay” was caused by Mrs Sargeant’s “own failure to take any steps” to explore her options. The result being that Mrs Sargeant was prevented from pursuing a claim under the Act.

Comment

With this case highlighting the difficulties in claiming under the Act out of time, the importance of getting early legal advice cannot be emphasised enough, even where a dispute is not initially anticipated, as any claim, if it holds any merits, needs to be considered and bought before the Court at an early stage.