Woman’s payout from mum’s will is cut to benefit charities

THREE animal charities yesterday won a Supreme Court fight over £163,000 awarded to a woman left out of her mother’s will.

Melita Jackson left her £489,000 estate to The Blue Cross, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

But her daughter Heather Ilott, 56, has battled for 10 years for a share.

In 2015, Appeal Court judges said she was entitled to £163,000 because she had not been “reasonably provided for”. But the Supreme Court yesterday ruled she should be given just £50,000, the amount originally awarded by a district judge in a lower court in 2007.The court heard Mrs Ilott’s relationship with her mother, who died aged 70 in 2004, broke down after she left home at 17 and moved in with her boyfriend Nicholas, who she later married.

She told the court her mother “profoundly disagreed” with her lifestyle and choice of partner, leading to an irreconcilable rift developing between them.

“Attempts at reconciliation unsuccessful,” she added.

Mother-of-five Mrs Ilott, of Great Munden, Hertfordshire, made her application under the Inheritance were Act 1975. In his judgement, Supreme Court justice Lord Hughes said not enough weight was given to Mrs Jackson’s wishes.

He added: “Charities depend heavily on testamentary bequests for their work, which is by definition of public benefit and in many cases will be for demonstrably humanitarian purposes.

“More fundamentally, these charities were the chosen beneficiaries of the deceased. They did not have to justify a claim on the Battle... Heather Ilott basis of need under the 1975 Act, as Mrs Ilott necessarily had to do.” Martin Oliver, a partner at Wright Hassall Solicitors, said Mrs Ilott was “naturally very disappointed with the outcome”. He added: “She is a hardworking mother who brought a claim to seek reasonable financial provision from her mother’s estate under legislation which has been around for over 80 years. “Solicitors across England and Wales deal with thousands of claims every year under this legislation.”