When Mrs Jackson died in 2004, in her Will she left the majority of her £486,000 estate to The Blue Cross, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
She left her only daughter, Heather Ilott, absolutely nothing. She did that quite deliberately because her daughter had left home with her boyfriend as a 17 year old back in February 1978 and her and her daughter had remained estranged from that day to the day of Mrs Jackson’s death.
Heather Ilott went to Court and challenged the terms of her mother’s Will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975. At the initial hearing, the High Court awarded her £50,000.
The case went to appeal. The Court of Appeal decided that Mrs Ilott, who had 5 children and was on benefits and had no pension, was not given reasonable financial provision in the Will and increased her award to £143,000 to enable her to buy her housing association home, plus the reasonable costs of that purchase plus payments up to a maximum of £20,000 structured in a way that would allow her to preserve her state benefits.
But that is not the end of the story because on the 12 December 2016, the country’s highest Court, the Supreme Court, heard the charities’ appeal against that award.
The case brings to the fore the conflict between a person’s freedom to leave his or her assets by Will to whoever he or she wants and the law’s requirement that a Will should make reasonable financial provision for close family members and certain classes of dependents.
It will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court balance that conflict when its Judgment about the case (Ilott v. The Blue Cross and Others) is published.
It is a reasonable assumption that the Court will provide welcome guidance about the principles which are to be applied when dealing with the case of grown up children who choose to challenge the Will of a parent.
Both Nick Lambert, the author of this article, and Stephen Thompson of Wake Smith Solicitors have substantial experience of acting both for and against people who seek to challenge the terms of a Will (or a disposition under the rules relating to intestacy) under the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975.
If you have been disinherited or feel that you have been unfairly treated in a parent’s Will then contact Nick or Stephen on 0114 266 6660 here at Wake Smith Solicitors to find out more about your rights.
