Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Probate costs: Lumb v Lumb clarifies CPR 57.7(5)(b); arguability is not reasonable grounds; CPR 44 costs follow the event (England and Wales)

Published on: 14 November 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

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Article summary

Lumb v Lumb [2023] EWHC 2052 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case?

This decision is a warning that, in probate proceedings, it is unusual, and an exception, for the court to stray from the default CPR 44 costs regime, which ordinarily governs who pays. The CPR’s costs philosophy, aimed at deterring unproductive contests and promoting compromise, governs probate contests as fully as it does other claims, in practice and in principle. The distinct probate costs provisions operate in tandem with the CPR and its underlying approach, rather than displacing it. Where a defendant requires proof of the Will in solemn form under CPR 57.7(5), the CPR 57.7(5)(b) clause, by which the court withholds a costs order unless there were no reasonable grounds to challenge the Will, must be read restrictively. Bare arguability is not synonymous with reasonableness in this context at all.

What was the background?

Mrs Lumb was mother to two sons, Stuart and Michael. By her final 2019 Will she bequeathed the residuary estate, effectively the entirety of her estate, to Michael. Soon after her death on 5 August 2020, Stuart lodged a caveat...

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