Granddaughters left simply £50 by their grandfather owe £220k in prices

Five granddaughters left just £50 each by their ‘disappointed’ grandfather in his £500,000 will have been left more than £220,000 out of pocket after being ordered to pay the costs of their failed court fight.

‘Strong willed’ former soldier Frederick Ward Snr, who died in 2020, all but cut out his dead son Fred Jnr’s five adult children after a family feud because he was disappointed and ‘upset’ they didn’t visit him in his later years.

He instead split almost all of his fortune between his children Terry Ward and Susan Wiltshire, with Fred Jr’s five daughters – Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett – being handed just £50 each in envelopes at a ‘provocative’ will reading.

After learning they had been ‘left out’ of the will, the sisters sued, claiming they should get their late father’s share of their grandfather’s money, and accusing their Uncle Terry and Aunt Susan of having ‘unduly influenced’ him into changing his will.

But their case was thrown out by High Court judge Master James Brightwell, who in March said it was ‘entirely rational’ for the ‘disappointed’ grandfather to cut out his granchildren due to their ‘very limited contact’ with him in his latter years.

Now following a new hearing, the five sisters have been left facing a crushing £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.

Lawyers for the five granddaughters had 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 grandfather’s estate.

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

He had previously made a will which split his estate, including his £450,000 maisonette, between all three of his children.

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

When his final 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.

From a fortune valued at around £500,000, they were handed envelopes containing just £50 each in cash by their Uncle Terry.

They then sued, claiming that their grandfather’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 the pair, denied all the allegations and told the court: ‘When ones dies, one is entitled to leave one’s property to whoever one pleases.’

Giving judgment, Master Brightwell sided with Terry and Sue and described the 2018 will as ‘rational’ in the circumstances, given that Fred Jr’s children had not seen much of their grandfather after their dad’s death in 2015.

‘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,’ he said.

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.

Rejecting the sisters’ argument over legal bills, 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.’

‘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.

Giving judgment on the inheritance fight earlier this year, Master Brightwell had described the 2018 will as ‘rational’ given that Fred Jr’s children had not seen much of their grandfather after their dad’s death in 2015.

They had not visited him in hospital because they were not 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,’ he said.

The five sisters had made only ‘very occasional short visits’ to see their grandfather, while he was on close terms with his son Terry and Susan was his full-time carer.

‘I accept Susan’s evidence that her father complained that Fred Jr’s family did not care about him,’ adding that he was particularly upset about the lack of contact at the time of one of his great-granddaughters’ weddings.

‘He complained that he was not even sent a piece of wedding cake,’ 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.’