Granddaughters angry at getting £50 in will now face £200,000 legal bill

'When ones dies, one is entitled to leave one's property to whoever one pleases.'

Five granddaughters who were each left £50 from their ‘disappointed’ grandad in his will are now facing a hefty legal bill.

Frederick Ward Snr, who died in 2020, all but cut out his dead son Fred Jnr’s five adult children from his £500,000 will because he was ‘upset’ they didn’t visit him often during his later years.

The five granddaughters – Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett – were each handed £50 in an envelope, and decided to sue, claiming they deserved their late dad’s one-third share of the will.

But their case was thrown out of the High Court after judge Master James Brightwell said it was ‘entirely rational’ for the ‘disappointed’ grandad to cut his grandchildren out, due to their ‘very limited contact’ with him.

Now, following a new hearing, the five grandchildren have been left with a £220,000-plus bill to cover their aunt and uncle’s costs of defending the claim against them, as well as their own lawyers’ bills.

The five had accused their Uncle Terry and Aunt Susan of having ‘unduly influenced’ Frederick Snr into changing his will – something the High Court said there was no evidence of.

Lawyers for the five granddaughters argued that they should not pay all the costs of the case, accusing their uncle of ‘provocative’ behaviour, and asking for some of the bills of the fight to come out of their grandad’s estate.

But the judge said the cause of the bitter court battle was the change in the relationship between granddaughters and grandfather, who had become disappointed at their limited contact after Fred Jnr died.

He ordered Ms Gowing and her sisters to pay £100,000 up front towards a total defence legal bill estimated at £136,470, with VAT to be added on.

The sisters own legal costs were £85,688.50.

During the trial last year, the court heard Fred Ward Snr, an ‘independent and strong minded’ former soldier, cable joiner and regular social club user who lived in Willow Road, South Ealing, London, died aged 91 in 2020.

He had three kids, Fred Jr, Terry and Susan, and had previously made a will which split his estate, including his £450,000 maisonette, between all three.

But Fred Jr – father to the five sisters – died before his dad in 2015, following which the family fell out, with Mr Ward not seeing much of Fred Jr’s side of the family.

When his 2018 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 that the five sisters had been all but cut out.

They then sued, claiming that their grandad’s last will was invalid, having been made when he was ‘an ill man’ and ‘frightened’ of Terry, who ‘coerced’ him into making it.

They also pointed the finger at their aunt Susan, accusing her of exerting ‘undue influence’ over their grandad.

Their barrister told the judge that Terry had developed a particular ‘hate’ for his niece Carol Gowing after a family falling out over a property, and said there was a ‘palpable…dislike between the two sides of the family’.

Maxwell Myers, for Terry and Susan, denied all the allegations and told the court: ‘When ones dies, one is entitled to leave one’s property to whoever one pleases.’

The case returned to court last week for a decision on who pays the lawyers’ bills for the case.

Both sides blamed each other for starting the court fight, with Mr Myers telling the judge that, given the nature of the allegations against them, Terry and Sue had been forced to defend themselves.

But James McKean, for the sisters, said they had been ‘compelled to issue proceedings’ when their aunt and uncle ‘withdrew an undertaking not to distribute the estate’ and pointed to ‘provocative’ behaviour by Terry at the will reading.

He argued that, despite losing the fight, the five sisters shouldn’t have to pay all of their aunt and uncle’s costs, saying that some of the costs should be paid out of the estate.

Rejecting that request, the judge said: ‘The deceased had made a promise whilst he was alive that, should one of his children die, their children would inherit their share. Did the behaviour of the deceased cause the litigation?

‘It was admitted by Terry Ward at the will reading that such a promise was made. But it can’t be said that the deceased was the real cause of the litigation.

‘It was a change in the relationship between the deceased and the claimants, and that is a different matter.

‘I don’t consider it is appropriate to order any costs to come out of the estate.

‘In circumstances where the defendants knew that minimal gifts had been made and that that would cause upset, I’m not sure why a will reading took place in the way that it did, causing some of the animosity.’

‘Terry’s behaviour just after the death of his father was provocative,’ the judge found, but went on to say that finding was far from establishing that Terry ‘was the cause of the litigation’.

‘Having heard the reading of the will spirits were high on both sides from the start and the die was cast for a bitter dispute from the outset,’ the judge concluded.

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