LCN v KF & Ors [2019] EWCOP 1

​Application under s18(1)(h) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 for the settlement of the P's property on trust. An order was made authorising the execution of a settlement.

The P was 13 when he died, having received a substantial sum of compensation after the NHS Trust admitted liability for complications during his birth. The question here was whether the person (EH) who held a Special Guardianship Order in relation to the P should inherit the specially adapted house they shared with the P free of inheritance tax or not. If they did, the inheritance tax would be paid out of the rest of the P's estate, in effect reducing the amount that the P's biological mother would inherit. A supplemental decision had to be made as to whether the P's biological father (who had denied paternity and had had no involvement at all in the P's life) should be notified of the proceedings. 

The court ruled that the house should pass to EH free of inheritance tax and that the hearing should proceed without the involvement of the biological father, although he would be served with a copy of the final order so that it would be open to him to apply to set aside or vary it.

Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii