Family provision - dependant maintained by deceased - defendant living with deceased 'immediately before' death despite temporarily moving out

Gully v Dix; In re Dix, dec'd: CA (Lord Justice Ward, Lord Justice Mummery and Lord Justice Rix): 21 January 2004

The claimant had lived with the deceased since 1974.

He became addicted to alcohol.

His behaviour deteriorated and in August 2001 the claimant, fearing for her own safety, departed.

She never returned, and the deceased was found dead in October 2001.

The claimant sought financial provision from the deceased's estate.

The defendant, the deceased's brother, opposed her claim.

The judge, on the hearing of a preliminary issue, held that the claimant was living in the same household and being maintained by the deceased 'immediately before' his death for the purposes of section 1 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1974.

The defendant appealed.

Charles Goodall (instructed by Brain Sinnott & Co, Bristol) for the defendant; Malcolm Warner (instructed by Withy King, Bath) for the claimant.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that the judge, having referred to Jelly v Illiffe [1981] Fam 128 and looking at the settled state of affairs between the parties during the long period of their cohabitation, was justified in deciding to ignore the abnormal situation of the last three months of the deceased's life when, because of alcohol abuse, the claimant had been unable to cope and moved away; and that, accordingly, she was to be treated as living in the same household and as being maintained by the deceased 'immediately before' his death, so as to be entitled to claim financial provision from his estate.