concentrated instead on advising Bane about the technical problems associated with
the establishment of a purpose trust. However, I do not wish to be unduly critical of
Mr Trower, because his death means that he has been unable to give his own account
of the matter, and it is also possible that Bane’s instructions left him with no option
but to act as he did (although I have to say that, in that case, one would expect to find
a clear record of those instructions on the file). The important point, for present
purposes, is that the circumstances in which the 1988 and 1989 Wills were executed,
and the fact that Bane had the assistance of a very experienced solicitor, cannot weigh
significantly in the balance against the evidence that Bane’s wish to leave his estate to
the CPA was influenced by his delusions.
227.
Mr Simmonds QC submitted that it would be wrong to focus too much on Bane’s
decision to leave his estate to the CPA, because the 1988 Will was only intended to be
a stop-gap, and the purpose of the 1989 Will was to establish a foundation in honour
of Bane’s father rather than to benefit the CPA. Indeed, Bane had expressly
instructed Mr Trower to revoke the 1988 Will, even at the price of possibly dying
intestate. There is some force in this submission, although it does lead me again to
doubt whether the alterations to Bane’s own draft of the 1989 Will were ever properly
explained to him. However, even on the assumption that Bane fully understood the
changes, and thought that he could safely rely on the CPA to establish his desired
foundation, the problem in my judgment remains essentially the same. I agree with
the submission of Miss Montgomery QC that by 1989 Bane’s concern for his father
and his memory was inextricably linked to his delusions. For example, as early as
November 1984, in his letter to “Otmar”, Bane had linked his mother, sister and wife
with the deaths of his father and brother-in-law, saying “They have tried everything to
disable and destroy me. My poor father and Zdenko Kovacevic. The group of
conspirators is infinite”. A similar link is apparent in his letter to his uncle Spiro
dated 25 December 1984; and in an earlier note written by Bane and dated 26 October
1984 he had said:
“Hidden dark forces lured him into a hellish plot, and my father
Milan, noble and blessed, naively and innocently fell into the
trap. It seems to me that a monstrous secret had to be hidden at
all costs. Let the good Lord justly reward the brutish plotters
and their aides.”
228.
Moreover, it is clear that this link was still present to Bane’s mind at the time when
the 1988 and 1989 Wills were made. When Bane sent the domicile questionnaire to
the Inspector of Taxes in February 1988, he enclosed with it a photograph of his
father’s grave saying “Even today, I cannot get the cause of his death. I suspect, that
he was poisoned by family.” Again, when Bane wrote to Mr Trower on 29 June
1989, instructing him to revoke the 1988 Will, his proposal to establish a foundation
in the name of his father was associated with some obviously delusional language: “I
love LEGENDS but not the LEGENDS created for BLACKMAILS (hocus, pocus,
preperandus’ way of living)”. As I have already noted, Professor Howard agreed that
Bane’s delusional belief system included the belief that his father had probably been
murdered by his mother and sister, and he accepted there was a real possibility that,
when Bane decided to leave his estate to establish an institution in his father’s name,
those delusional beliefs would have been present to his mind. I would go further, and
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