Bankrupted ‘lord’ contests $7.7m will
A twice-bankrupted, self-styled ‘‘lord’’ who claims he is the illegitimate son of Britain’s Prince Philip has launched legal action in Australia to get part of his late aunt’s A$7 million (NZ$7.7m) estate.
There was no mention of an Andrew, let alone ‘‘Lord Andrew Battenberg’’, in the death notice of Blanche Millie Condon of Sydney, which appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald in December 2016.
Condon’s brother, Harold Lee, a banker, and his wife, Ailsa, adopted Andrew from Hornsby Hospital in August 1962. He has since claimed that when he was 21, a mysterious letter arrived from England, containing the Barony of Craigstown and access to an endowment.
In reality, Andrew Lee purchased the title himself and began styling himself as Lord Andrew of Craigstown. He then changed his name to Lord Andrew Battenberg and, while bankrupted in Australia for not paying the costs of a failed lawsuit against his previous solicitors, he moved to Scotland in 2004, where he changed his name again, to Lord Leitrim.
Over the years, he has repeatedly suggested that his real father is the Duke of Edinburgh. Just how Prince Philip’s ‘‘love child’’ came to be born in Sydney’s Hornsby Hospital has never been explained by Battenberg.
Lee/Lord Battenberg/Lord Leitrim has launched legal action against his cousins, Bruce Phillips, a partner at KPMG, and Phillips’ sister, Ruth Price, who are executors of Condon’s estate, which is valued in excess of A$7m.
There was no mention made of Battenberg in his aunt’s will, dated September 2016. Battenberg claims that there was a sharp decline in his aunt’s health around that time and she did not have the mental capacity to make the will.
Instead, Battenberg has produced a typed document dated September 2006, which purports to be an ‘‘irrevocable agreement’’ made between his late aunt and her late sister-in-law Ailsa Lee, Battenberg’s adoptive mother. According to this document, his aunt wanted to leave Battenberg a fifth of her estate as ‘‘compensation’’ to him for his alleged mistreatment by his adoptive father and Condon’s husband.
Battenberg’s long-time companion, horticulturist Rudi Fabian, provided the court with an affidavit in which Fabian claimed to have witnessed the preparation and execution of this document, the original of which cannot be located. However, the executors told the court that the signature on this document was markedly different to their aunt’s signature on her 2016 will and earlier wills.
Battenberg has a history of failed litigation. After he was thrown out of Sydney’s upmarket Union Club for failing to pay the fees, he sued the club – unsuccessfully – for discrimination, including ‘‘refusing to use his title and making impertinent inquiries concerning his sexual preferences’’.
He was bankrupted in 2005 after he failed to pay the costs of his unsuccessful legal action against his former solicitors, Michel Sillar. In 2003, he sued the law firm over a failed property deal in the Blue Mountains which had led to his bankruptcy.
In that case, Justice Michael Grove found that Battenberg was ‘‘unreliable and possibly suffering from delusions’’, and that there were instances ‘‘of attempted fabrication’’ by him ‘‘to support his contentions’’ that his solicitors were to blame for his ‘‘financial woes’’.
For several years, Battenberg tried to avoid his second stint of bankruptcy by telling the Federal Court of Australia that he was a British resident. At the same time, he was telling a Scottish court that because he lived in Australia, it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case of his former chauffeur, who was suing over unpaid wages.
In 2007, Justice Margaret Stone of the Federal Court found Battenberg to be an unreliable witness who was ‘‘prepared to say whatever he thinks best suits his interests’’.
Stone said in her judgment that his former solicitors had submitted that his name change was relevant to his credibility, as ‘‘it shows that he lives in a fantasy world and that his evidence is tailored to bolster that fantasy and cannot be believed’’.
Battenberg spent eight years in bankruptcy, and was discharged in 2013.
It is not known whether the recent death of Fabian will affect the case.