Recent reports have been circling around the case of deceased business man David Turner and his estate. Turner’s sister contested the will when she found out that David had left the majority of his £5 million fortune to his friend, Sam Jones who he had ‘treated as a child’. Sam owns a fast food van and had become friends with David years earlier, the sister however had been left nothing due to an going sibling dispute.
Martin Holdsworth comments;
“This is another example of sibling animosity. The deceased businessman, David Turner left his fortune to a burger van chef that he had met many years earlier rather than his sister who he hadn’t seen for many years. The reality is that it is still the case that you can leave what you want to who you want. The sister would only inherit if she could show that her brother died without any valid will (intestate) – if that were proven, then she would inherit the £5m estate instead ! High stakes litigation ensued.
A number of allegations were thrown out by the sister, but the main thrust appears to be the suggestion that her brother had destroyed his last will. The original was never found despite their being 4 copies located and the deceased having a reputation as a bit of a hoarder. It takes the same intention and mental capacity to destroy a will as it does to create a will AND there is a legal presumption that if a will cannot be found then it has been destroyed. Fair game for a challenge it would seem, but the court decided that even though the original will never found, the evidence rebutted the presumption of destruction and that the copy will could be relied upon much to the chagrin of the sister! And so, Sam from the burger van took the £5m and Linda came a very expensive second …”
If only David had registered his will with the National Will Register and arranged for professional storage.
Martin Holdsworth, CEO
