Hereford Consistory Court; Henty Ch. October 1991

A testatrix who bequeathed the whole of her residuary estate worth £106,000 (subject to certain life interests) to the vicar and churchwardens of a parish church was a substantial benefactor who had shown "outstanding service to the Church" within the guidelines given in Re St. Margaret's Eartham [1981] 1 WLR1129. The petition for a memorial to her and her family to be erected within the church accordingly gave rise to exceptional considerations justifying the grant of a faculty. It was appropriate to treat the monument as one to the testatrix's family because at least some of her estate must have been derived from other members of the family, and the family had contributed financially as well as by giving practical support to the parish church. The petitioner had failed to set out in the petition, as he should have done, the exceptional circumstances relied on, which only became apparent after enquiries had been made by the Registrar. Had the appropriate information been provided at the start, much time would not have been wasted and considerable inconvenience to all would have been avoided.

---

(1993) 3 Ecc LJ 59-60