Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Will fight sons lose inheritance and thousands more
Two brothers who claimed their sick father was not mentally well enough to leave half his will to their stepmother have been ordered to pay about £200,000 court costs.
Richard and Jonathan Powell pleaded with a judge that the hefty fees should come out of their father’s £250,000 estate after losing their legal challenge earlier this month.
But on Friday Judge Marc Dight delivered a double blow to the “greedy” brothers, ordering them to cover the costly bill of the high-profile court bid.
The pair had argued that their stepmother, Ailsa Williamson Powell, had persuaded their father, David Powell, to change his will and leave her half of his inheritance.
Mr Powell died in 2012, aged 84, after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
A 2003 version of his will in had left the bulk of his estate to his two sons and just £2,000 to Mrs Williamson Powell, a 75-year-old former eye specialist at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
A second, in 2008, split the estate three ways, before the final document was drawn up the following year, leaving his wife half and his sons a quarter each after small gifts to a church, a Parkinson’s charity and grandchildren.
Mrs Williamson Powell, from Littlebourne, had earlier told a judge this move had nothing to do with her, asserting that her husband had made all the decisions about his wills and fully understood what he was doing. Evidence from professionals also backed this up.
Financial adviser Richard Powell, 54, from Wandsworth, and his brother Jonathan, 55, who lives in America, initially claimed the first will in 2000, was their father’s last true wishes and should be honoured.
But as the case progressed, they argued the estate should be divided three ways, as per the 2008 instructions.
Judge Dight, sitting at the Central London County Court, said the suggestion Mr Powell did not know what he was doing was without any foundation and described the relationship between husband and wife as loving and caring.
He ruled the sons pay legal costs, expected to be at least £200,000.
The ruling is expected to leave the brothers about £40,000 out of pocket, with each thought to have received somewhere in the region of £60,000 from their father’s estate.