Judge overturns millionaire’s will
APENSIONER who was left nothing in her millionaire partner’s will has been saved from poverty by a senior judge.
Joan Thompson, 79, lived as man and wife with Pembrokeshire landowner Wynford Hodge for 42 years before his death at the age of 94 last year.
Mr Hodge, who owned Parsonage Farm and Caravan Park, Amroth, along with land and other properties, was worth over £1.5m when he died.
But he left Mrs Thompson without a penny, instead bequeathing everything to two of his tenants who had been kind to him in his final years.
In a letter attached to his will, Mr Hodge was adamant that he did not want Mrs Thompson or her four children to inherit any of his fortune. Describing her as “financially comfortable”, he said she had “her own finances” and would have no need of his money.
But Judge Milwyn Jarman said that was a “mistake” and Mrs Thompson had in fact been left with only modest
savings of about £2,500.
Reluctantly living on benefits in a nursing home, she wanted to return to the family estate where she had friends on the caravan park.
Now Judge Jarman has ruled that Mr Hodge failed to match up to his responsibilities to his long-term partner. He has re-written the wealthy businessman’s will by awarding Mrs Thompson a cottage on the estate worth £225,000.
She will also receive almost £190,000 in cash to pay for the cottage’s refurbishment and to provide her with reasonable financial support.
Mr Hodge, who suffered from prostate cancer, made more than 10 wills before his death, the High Court in Cardiff heard.
In hospital shortly before he died, he told Mrs Thompson “not to worry as she would be well looked after”, said the judge.
But, in the last will he signed in December 2016, Mr Hodge left everything he had to tenants, Karla Evans and Agon Berisha.
Working as subsistence market gardeners and on the caravan park, the couple became instant millionaires on Mr Hodge’s death.
Parents of two young children, they rented a house called Penffordd, in Narbeth, from Mr Hodge, doing unpaid errands for him and helping him with his shopping.
But, when asked, Ms Evans said she didn’t want to be a millionaire and would be happy with an annual holiday and enough money to bring up her kids.
Judge Jarman said that, even after his ruling, the couple would receive “by far the major part” of Mr Hodge’s seven-figure estate. But the landowner’s belief that Mrs Thompson would need no financial support after his death was simply a “mistake”, he said.
She and her son, Dean, then a young boy, moved into a caravan at Parsonage Farm in the 1970s and into the farmhouse with Mr Hodge soon afterwards.
She worked on the farm and on the caravan site without pay and helped care for Mr Hodge’s mother, said the judge. They were together for over 40 years and, after Mr Hodge’s health began to fail, she acted as his main carer.
Mrs Thompson had a serious stroke about 12 years ago.
Mrs Thompson, who gave evidence from a wheelchair, said she was determined to leave the nursing home and return to the family estate.
Granting her wish, Judge Jarman said that, by disinheriting her, Mr Hodge had failed to meet the “obligations and responsibilities” he owed her.
He ordered that a property called Elidyr Cottage should be transferred to her, where she can be looked after by Dean and his wife.