Our client’s sister passed away and left a multi-million dollar estate and did not provide for our client.
The deceased was several years older than our client and had cared for her since she was a child. Our client’s mother abandoned them in childhood and the deceased stepped into the role of mother. Their relationship stayed the same even after our client’s sister got married.
The pseudo parent-child relationship continued throughout life and the pair remained very close right up until the deceased’s passing.
Our client contacted GMP Contesting Wills Lawyers to identify if she was eligible to contest the will of her sister. We discovered that years earlier our client and her sister inherited a small block of land from their late cousin. Our client’s share of the block was transferred to the deceased on the promise that monies would be paid at a later date. At the time of the deceased’s passing the debt was not paid and the monies formed part of the estate, an amount of $15,000.00.
Our client had significant assets of her own and did not fit within the traditional meaning of ‘need’; however given the significant size of the estate we believed that we could establish a claim on the estate. We notified the estate of this position and the only response received was to completely disregard both the family provision claim and the debt claim.
We commenced contesting a will Court proceedings on behalf of our client, and after a lengthy mediation we were able to settle the matter out of Court. Our client was very pleased that we were able to secure the debt amount as well as something extra for the family provision claim.
