Oxford don’s will victory over mother’s £1.25m home
She had left estate to young lover
AN Oxford don disinherited by his mother when she fell in love with a female barrister half her age has won a legal battle over her £1.25million home.
Professor christopher Gosden argued that his mother Dr Jean Weddell had decided in 2003 to leave him her edwardian home in London.
But he was left with nothing when she died after forming a civil partnership with Wendy cook, 37 years her junior.
By the time of her death in 2013 aged 84, she had made a new will, leaving much of her estate to her new partner but nothing to her son.
Professor Gosden later learnt his mother’s home was sold without his knowledge in 2010 and that when she died there was just £5,000 left in her estate.
It emerged that Miss cook had received a large inheritance from a second elderly female lover, also named Jean.
Her other partner was Jean southworth Qc, a former judge and Bletchley Park codebreaker, from whom she inhercourt ited £2.5million when she died in 2010 aged 83.
Miss cook ended up living with both wealthy Jeans in the same cottage in the centre of Newport on Isle of Wight after they had left their homes London to join her.
Professor Gosden went to court claiming a trust scheme set up by his mother in 2003 to minimise inheritance tax ought to have given him and his wife Professor Jane Kaye the right to veto the sale of the house.
the archaeologist, a director of the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford University, said he would never have agreed to the sale, given that Miss cook – whom he regarded with ‘distrust’ – would be ‘the ultimate beneficiary’ after the new will.
the couple sued Halliwell Landau, the legal firm that drew up the trust agreement, claiming it bungled by leaving a loophole that allowed the house in Kennington, south London, to be sold without their knowledge.
they argued the firm was negligent in failing to register a restriction on the house with the Land registry that would have kept the couple in control of whether or not it was sold.
In February last year, High Judge Mark Pelling found the solicitors had indeed been negligent in failing to register the restriction but dismissed the claim against them.
He ruled that Professor Gosden had not established that the legal firm’s error had caused him any loss, finding that even if he and his wife had known about the planned sale of the house, Dr Weddell would have persuaded them to agree to it and the proceeds put into her estate.
But yesterday the Appeal court reversed that ruling.
Lord Justice Patten said the judge had been wrong to conclude the couple would have let the house be sold when they had ‘concern... about Dr Weddell’s capacity and what they regarded as the malign influence of Miss cook in the arrangement of Dr Weddell’s affairs’.
He added the solicitors’ negligence meant they had lost the power to veto the sale. there was no claim against Miss cook. the will left to her by her other lover Miss southworth was challenged by her godson, investment manager Nicholas Falla. the case was settled by mediation in 2017.
At the height of Professor Gosden’s legal battle, a neighbour of the women on the Isle of Wight said: ‘Wendy seemed to adopt old people and ended up living with these two Jeans here. they were so frail and bowed over, beyond doddery.’
Dr Weddell enjoyed a glittering international career as a physician, helping set up a children’s hospital in Korea in the 1950s and lecturing for the World Health Organisation.
she gave birth to christopher just before she left for Korea but gave him up for adoption.
He grew up in Australia but returned to the UK and established a ‘ strong and happy relationship’ with his mother in 1987.
‘Malign influence’