A “disappointed” grandad “hurt” because his grandchildren didn’t visit him more often was entitled to leave them £50 each from his £500,000 fortune, a judge has ruled.
Frederick Ward Snr died in 2020, dividing almost all his fortune between his son, Terry Ward, and daughter, Susan Wiltshire. He left his dead son Fred Jr’s five adult children £50 each in envelopes, sparking a family row.
A former, Mr Ward, who was 91 when he died, told his legal representatives he was upset because he had not been visited by his son Fred’s children while admitted to hospital with a lung condition.
After discovering they had been all but disinherited, sisters Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett, sued, claiming they should receive their late father’s share of the money.
They argued their Uncle Terry and Aunt Susan had “unduly influenced” their grandfather into changing his will so the five sisters’ share of his estate went to them instead.
However, their case was thrown out by High Court judge, Master James Brightwell, who said it was “entirely rational” for the “disappointed” grandfather to cut out his grandchildren due to their “very limited contact” with him in his final years.
He said the evidence didn’t come close to persuading him Mr Ward had “coerced” his father or that Ms Wiltshire had “controlled” him such as to cast doubt on his will.
Fred Snr, an “independent and strong minded” former soldier, cable joiner and regular social club user lived in Willow Road, South Ealing, London, died in 2020.
He had had previously made a will which split his estate, including his £450,000 maisonette, between all three. Fred Jr died before his dad in 2015, after which the family fell out and Mr Ward Snr did not see much of his son’s side of the family.
When his will was read out by Terry after his death, a bitter shouting match broke out – which was recorded and played to the court – when it was revealed the five sisters had been all but cut out.
The sisters claimed their grandad’s final 2018 will was invalid, having been made when he was “an ill man” and “frightened” of Terry, who, they argued, “coerced” him into making it.
They also pointed the finger at their aunt, who had cared for her father in the last years of his life, accusing her of exerting “undue influence” over their grandad.
Their barrister told the judge Terry had developed a particular “hate” for his niece Carol Gowing after a family row over a property and said there was a “palpable… dislike between the two sides of the family”.
The barrister said: “The claimants allege a mercenary side to the relationship between the defendants and the deceased.”
They said witnesses for the sisters recalled “the deceased complaining of being asked for money by one or both”.
The judge heard witnesses also claimed “they were told of physically violent behaviour” by Terry towards the deceased, who in his later life “appeared scared” of his son.
Terry and his barrister Maxwell Myers denied the “unpleasant” allegations, with Terry in the witness box calling one of the witnesses who made them “an absolute liar”.
Mr Myers also denied the allegations of undue influence, saying claims Frederick was a weak man differ from reality and were contradicted by the evidence.
He said: “His strength of character is attested to by a close friend… Fred Snr would never be frightened by Terry or Sue.”
The barrister put it to Ms Gowing in the witness box that “when ones dies, one is entitled to leave one’s property to whoever one pleases”.
To which she replied: “Yes, as long as the will has been written up correctly. I can’t prove they bullied him, but I feel the evidence we have points to that. It’s what we’ve been told by family members.”
Judge Brightwell described the 2018 will as “rational” in the circumstances, given that Fred Jr’s children had not seen much of their grandfather after their father’s death in 2015.
He said they hadn’t visited him in hospital because they weren’t informed he was there, but that was because of how often he was admitted and also “because contact between the parties had stopped in any event”.
The five sisters had made only “very occasional short visits” to see their “disappointed” grandad, while he was on close terms with his son Terry and Susan.
Judge Brightwell said: “It is most likely that given the changed circumstances following Fred Jr’s death and the limited contact with the claimants after then that Fred became disappointed with the claimants.
“I accept Susan’s evidence that her father complained that Fred Jr’s family did not care about him.”
The judge added he was particularly upset about the lack of contact at the time of one of his great-granddaughters’ weddings.
He said: “In those circumstances, and despite a promise by Fred several years earlier to divide his estate between his children’s children if anything should happen to any of them, the 2018 will was in my view entirely rational. This does not mean that I cannot understand the claimants’ disappointment at being essentially left out.”
The judge added: “Some may take the view that, as a general proposition, when a testator’s child has predeceased him, he generally ought to leave an equal share of his residue to that child’s issue.
“However, the decision not to do so and to split the residue and thus the bulk of the estate between his surviving children can hardly be said to be provision which no reasonable testator could make.”
Clearing Terry and Susan of influencing their father to cut out his granddaughters, the judge said: “The evidence does not come close to persuading me that it is more likely than not that the 2018 will was procured by the undue influence of the defendants or either of them.”
The judge also rejected claims Mr Ward did not have “capacity” to make the will in 2018 or that it was invalid for “want of knowledge and approval” of its effect.
