Disinherited Will Daughter Gets More

Court of Appeal Overturns Mother' WIll Who Disinherited and Awards Daughter More.

In a landmark case, that has been going on since Melita Jackson died in 2004, the court of appeal has increased the share of the estate left to her daughter Heather, despite Heather being written out of Ms Jackson's will, where the estate was left in full to 3 charities.

The daughter, Heather, left the family home when she was 17 to be with her boyfriend against the wishes of her mother. Heather Ilott is today still with the same partner but lives in rented accommodation and has limited financial resources.  The court heard that Illott had tried on numerous occasions to reconcile differences with her mother but that her mother had ben “unreasonable, capricious and harsh” in her dealings with her daughter.

Back in 2007, in the County Court, a district judge ruled that a parent cannot rid themselves of parental responsibility and awarded most Ilott £50,000 of a total estate worth £0.5 million. In 2011, the court of appeal suggested that the amount was insufficient yet the High Court ruled in March 2014 that the amount “could not be said to be wrong”.

Finally, today the court of appeal has increased Ilott’s share of the estate to £164,000 meaning that Illott will now be able to afford to buy a home for her family and to be able to feed and clothe themselves with some money left over to reduce her benefits claim.

What can we learn from this ruling?

• No parent can deliberately exclude their children from their will.
• Your last will and testament instructions are not guaranteed to happen.
• If the contents of your will are found to be unreasonable (by a court), whatever the definition of reasonable means, your will can be overturned.
• Charities have been dealt a blow with this case and cannot rely on wealth being left to them if the will is contested.
• We suggest all parents make adequate provision for their children in their will.

We suggest you leave money to charity where it can be clearly demonstrated that you have regularly supported that charity whether it is financially making gifts or assisting the charity in other ways such as voluntary work. This way, a charity can prove that you do have an interest in supporting that charity and any bequest on death would be reasonably expected to be in the contents of your will.