Woman in battle for control of $75m inheritance
An ex-Port Coquitlam woman is at the centre of a fight for control of a New York businessman’s estate that is worth an estimated $75 million.
Court documents filed in Vancouver allege that Jane Ji Ting Burrows became involved in the life of Ralph William Burrows while his condition deteriorated from the prostate cancer that caused his death. The documents say that the couple got married in March 2014 at a “secretive” civil ceremony at her house in B.C. less than five months before he died.
A trust was created in July 2014 purportedly to govern the disposition of the nearly $75 million in his assets, according to the documents.
“Under the trust’s terms, Bill purportedly disinherited his daughters, Ava and Audrey, and left the majority of his assets to Jane, a Canadian citizen who then resided in Port Coquitlam,” says a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
The petition, which was filed by the deceased’s former wife, Marcia Burrows, on behalf of the allegedly disinherited daughters, notes that probate proceedings in N.Y. are seeking to invalidate the trust on the grounds it was the product of undue influence by his surviving wife, duress or Burrows’s lack of “required capacity.”
The B.C. suit seeks to compel a Vancouver financial services firm that was involved in the deceased businessman’s estate planning to produce documents related to the case and to allow the petitioner’s lawyers to question an official with the firm. It says that the Vancouver company — WaterStreet Family Offices — played an “integral role” in the estate planning, including the trust that was created in 2014.
A letter from a Vancouver law firm representing WaterStreet that is attached to the petition claimed that a N.Y. court order dealing with the issue had no effect in B.C.
According to an affidavit filed in N.Y. and attached to the petition, Jane gained control over her husband’s companies, which include Burrows Paper Corp., during the final months of his life.
The affidavit says that Burrows remained in his home on an isolated property outside Little Falls in New York state. Records produced by a hospice indicated that Jane, serving as his primary caregiver, was administering Roxanol, a liquid morphine, to her husband by syringes left in her custody, it says.
The affidavit was filed in response to a motion seeking to dismiss the probate proceedings. That motion claimed that the alleged undue influence contained “conclusory allegations,” without specific details.
No date has been set for the hearing of the petition, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court.