Woman wins wills and probate case

A woman has won a recent wills and probate case in a court battle to claim some of her late mother's assets.

Heather Llott, from Greater Manchester, has now been awarded part of her parent Melita Jackson's £486,000 estate, which her mother had created a charity will for.

Judges in the Appeal Court made the decision after saying that Ms Jackson's decision to omit her child from her will and name its beneficiaries as charities she was not connected to was "unreasonable".

John Collins, Ms Llott's barrister, said that when Ms Jackson decided to make a will in such a way she did so "out of spite".

"We are ... deeply concerned about the impact of this judgement on our future income as it opens the floodgates to legal challenges from any aggrieved relative who, for whatever reason, has been left out of someone's will," Kim Hamilton, chief executive of Blue Cross, one of the charities named in the will, said.

Ms Jackson and her daughter fell out when Ms Llott ran away from home at the age of 17 with her now-husband and were not on good terms before Ms Jackson passed away.

In contrast another woman, Mary Tetley, received £10,000 in her mother's will and spent the money touring Europe visiting places that were famous for chocolate.

Published by Hannah Carr