The son of a baronet, who claims he has been “swindled out of his rightful inheritance” by his father, has met with near-total defeat in his latest legal claim.
Norris J ruled that Philip Howard had won only the right to collect ground rents from three properties, at a total of £5.60 a year.
He said that it was the fourth set of litigation brought by Howard against his father, Sir John Howard-Lawson, following the sale in 1994 of the Corby Estate near Carlisle, Cumbria, which includes Corby Castle, and which had been in the family for 375 years and 13 generations.
Last year, Proudman J rejected a claim that Howard-Lawson had forfeited his interest in the Estate in 1962 by failing to comply with a “name and arms clause” in a 1930 will, which made enjoyment of the Estate conditional on adopting the family name and coat-of-arms.
Norris J said that Howard still did not accept this, but that it was now settled by decision.
He said that, in the latest claim: “Mr Howard charges Sir John with exercising undue influence over him in connection with a variation of the trusts and with multiple breaches of trust in the administration of the trusts, with the consequence that Mr Howard has been swindled out of his rightful inheritance.”
The trusts were created in the 1930 will of Howard’s great-grandfather, Philip John Howard Canning Howard, who died in 1934.
In a lengthy consideration of various issues, including a claim that a partition of the trust property between father and son in 1984 was “inequitable”, the judge found largely in favour of Sir John.
He said that many of Howard’s allegations “are the product of an obsession and are not grounded in reality”, and added: “There can in any event be no question, 28 years after the bargain was struck, of ‘recalculating the Partition on an equitable basis’.”
Following the partition, the judge said that Howard had embarked upon property development ventures – including on some of the land transferred to him under it – with “catastrophic consequences” that led him into severe financial difficulties.
Though he rejected most of Howard’s claims, the judge ruled that he is entitled to the ground rent rights in respect of two households, at £2.50 each per year, and the Raby Estate, at 60p.
Howard v Howard-Lawson Chancery (Norris J) 20 November 2012
The claimant in person
Stephen Boyd (instructed by Ward Hadaway) for the defendant
