09 March 2024 , 16:17
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A family brawl erupted in the street after five sisters discovered their grandfather left them just an envelope with £50 cash in his will.
Frederick Ward Snr left the tiny sum from his £500,000 estate to express his "disappointment" that none of his grandchildren had visited him while in hospital. He died two years later in 2020 aged 91.
Now details have emerged of the bitter row triggered by the disappointing revelation, which the High Court heard culminated in a fight in a sleepy residential street. Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett were each handed an envelope containing the paltry sum following Mr Ward's death.
What followed was a huge squabble which spilled out into a street in Ealing, West London. One cousin even took "a swing" at their mother, Ann, according to Mrs Gowing's husband Andrew. Judge Master Brightwell said: "There were a lot of people simultaneously making a great deal of commotion."
The court heard how the grandfather and former soldier left the majority of his estate to his children Terry Ward and Susan Wiltshire, freezing out the daughters of his eldest son Fred Jr, who died in 2015. Furious, the five siblings contested the will in the High Court this year and lost.
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Carol Gowing outside London's High Court (Champion News)
Amanda Higginbotham outside London's High Court (Champion News Service)One witness who saw the chaos unfold said there were around 24 people at its height shouting at one another. Maria Hummer, a 37-year-old writer who lives on the street where it broke out told The Times: "I was just upstairs in our house, I heard this massive ruckus, all these like voices shouting. So I went to look out the window and it was people pouring out of that flat [where the will reading was held]."
The court heard how Mr Ward Snr had been in hospital three times with a lung condition in 2018 when he became aggrieved at the lack of visits from grandchildren. "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," Master Brightwell said.z
The late Fred Ward, who left only £250 to his grandchildren after they didn't come to see him in hospital (Champion News)It was also heard how one male cousin came out with a tirade of expletives aimed at the five sisters during the will reading. Master Brightwell added: 'When it was put to [another cousin] that he had at the will reading called [Mrs Gowing] a "horrible c***", he immediately (and accurately) retorted that he had added the words "money-grabbing" to the epithet.'
The five sisters contested the will on the basis that their Uncle Terry and Aunt Susan had "unduly influenced" their father into altering his will in their favour, casting aside their late-brother's side of the family. But the court ultimately threw the case out, with the judge saying "the evidence does not come close to persuading me" of any coercion.
Angela St Marseille, one of Fred's five grandchildren (Supplied by Champion News)The judge said: "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 a provision which no reasonable testator could make."
The judge also rejected claims that 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.