High Court presumes a missing man dead after seven years

The High Court applied the presumption that a person is dead if those who would be likely to have heard news of him had not heard for at least seven years.

David Bayes-Walker was serving in the RAF in Cyprus when he disappeared in September 2002. There was evidence that he had flown to Cairo, but no trace of his movements or contact with his family after that. His two sons successfully applied to the Court for a declaration that their father should be presumed dead for the purpose of obtaining rights to the proceeds of a life insurance policy taken out by their father and investments in his name.The High Court made it clear that it could not make a general declaration of Mr Bayes-Walker’s death having effect for all purposes, but it could make orders on the footing that Mr Bayes-Walker was dead which would assist his sons.

For more information, please contact Andrew Goldstone on 020 7440 7205