Victory for cleaner in court fight over Savoy waiter’s £515k fortune
A CLEANER has won a High Court battle to overturn her employer’s will after she was disinherited from his £515,000 estate.
Leonora Da Costa, 50, was made the main beneficiary by former Savoy head waiter Harold Tickner in 2014 after she spent time looking after him following his wife’s death.
This meant she stood to inherit most of his fortune, including proceeds from the 91-year- old’s £500,000 home in Harrow, north London.
But days before his death from cancer in June 2015, Mr Tickner handed the keys of the house to his nephew, Dennis Germain, and made a new will leaving £15,000 to his daughter, Karen Tickner.
Mrs Da Costa has now scored a major victory after Judge William Henderson ruled that Mr Tickner lacked the mental capacity to know what he was doing when he made a revised will 16 days before he died.
Mrs Da Costa’s lawyers argue the ruling should also invalidate the gift of the house to Mr Germain – meaning Mrs Da Costa would be entitled to an inheritance worth around £415,000, taking into account heard bequests Cologne, Mr to Tickner Germany, others. was The but born court was in sent to boarding school in England and later fought with Britain against the Nazis in the Second World War.
He was head waiter at the Savoy before the war and at the Savoy Grill afterwards, before going on to work in a bank.
He met Mrs Da Costa through her husband Eduardo, 53, who worked as a gardener at his home in Harrow.
She told the High Court they developed a relationship akin to ‘father and daughter’, with Mr £45,000 through the Tickner death private to put even of school. her Mr giving daughter Tickner’s Following her wife heard Ursula Mrs Da in Costa 2012, the was court with him ‘every single day’, cooking and cleaning at his house and going out with him for meals. ‘He always told me the only thing he had left for him to enjoy was having lovely meals, so he appreciated me taking him out three times a week,’ she said. The judge said Mr Tickner was not close to his daughter, Karen, 67, who left the UK to work for Unesco in Hamburg decades ago. He did, however, often see his nephew, Mr Germain, a retired criminal barrister from Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire.
After the two men fell out at Christmas 2013, Mr Tickner made a will in 2014 leaving £25,000 each to his nephew and Karen, £50,000 to friend Kulvinder Nahal, and the rest – including about £15,000 in cash – to Mrs Da Costa.
But days before he died – and after reconciling with Mr Germain – he executed two new documents. One gave the house to his nephew, and the other was a new will leaving the £15,000 to Karen.
Following Mrs Da Costa’s challenge over the will, the judge said she and Mr Germain had both ‘contributed significantly to [Mr Tickner’s] happiness’. However, after hearing evidence from doctors, the judge overturned the 2015 will on the grounds of lack of capacity and said there was ‘no real doubt as to the validity’ of the 2014 will.
The ruling paves the way for Mrs Da Costa to challenge Mr Germain’s ownership of the house. The case will go before another judge at a later date.