Neighbour’s legal bid to claim share of pensioner’s will dismissed by judge

A WOMAN who cared for her widowed neighbour until he died has been denied a payout – despite claiming he promised her thousands of pounds from the sale of his house.

Yvonne Pugh helped look after Joe Kain when he lost his wife in 2004 until his own death, aged 69, in 2016.

The pair were neighbours in Hathersage Road, Great Barr, for more than 40 years and Mrs Pugh said he promised her a third of the proceeds from the sale of his house after his death.

But she was left with nothing when he died without making a will and his entire estate passed to his children. Mrs Pugh launched a court challenge – but a judge has dismissed it. Judge John Hewitt rejected claims they lived together or were engaged.

He told a tribunal: “It is not disputed that Mrs Pugh was at the property regularly, most days, and cared for Joe in the latter years when he became unwell. But I find that each evening she went home.”

Mrs Pugh pointed to a birthday card Mr Kain gave her, referring to her as ‘my fiancée’.

But the judge said: “I am not persuaded that Mrs Pugh and Joe were engaged to be married or that Joe had an intention to marry her.

“I accept that Joe gave her a birthday card intended for a fiancee, but I infer it was given to her as something of a sop, perhaps to keep her happy and quiet.”

Mrs Pugh, he added, had only become Mr Kain’s full-time carer in the last two to three months of his life. There was “no reliable evidence” that he made her a binding promise, rather than merely making a statement of intent.

“To put that intent into effect Joe would have had to make a will. Clearly Joe did not want to do that.”

The judge said: “The strong impression I get is that Mrs Pugh feels aggrieved that, after all she did for Joe and the love and care she gave to him, she was left nothing in his estate.”

But she had simply failed to prove that he made her a promise or that there was “a common intention” that she would get a third of the sale proceeds.