Niece wins back inheritance after long legal battle
AN ELDERLY widower left a sixfigure sum in his will to a woman 50 years younger than him, sparking a lengthy legal battle.
John Morgan, 75, from Cardiff, died in 2013 leaving behind his sister-inlaw Jill and niece Julie Elvin.
As his only living family, they were tasked with putting Mr Morgan’s affairs in order – but when they came to scrutinising his will, they found four separate wills leaving significant sums to women they had never heard of before.
Suspicions were raised during John’s lifetime after he kept referring to a friend who had been sending him cards while in hospital,
Hair salon owner Julie, 53, from Cardiff, said: “Before John died, he told my mother and I that he invested £35,000 into a wine company and we thought we had to be careful here but we also didn’t want to say ‘don’t go spending our inheritance.’
“He kept talking about his friend and I said ‘you need to be careful John’ – but by then he wouldn’t listen to anybody.
“John was in hospital for quite a while and every time I went to see him he was mentioning this woman’s name, or what he thought was her name, we only found out her proper name after he died.”
When Julie looked into the matter, she discovered that the beneficiary, who cannot be named for legal reasons, worked for a wine investment company which Mr Morgan had invested in.
There were also increasingly large amounts leaving his bank account in the months before his death.
It was later discovered that the name of the beneficiary on the first will, the name John knew the woman by, was a pseudonym and her real name was used on the remaining three wills.
Julie said: “I thought ‘who in the hell is this woman’ and on the first will there was what we later found out to be a pseudonym. I thought ‘Jesus, we have a problem.’
“I was absolutely devastated, it wasn’t about the financial gain, (John) had been screwed over and that’s what had to be stopped. She stood to gain a lot of money, a six figure sum.
“It was horrific because John was my mother’s brother-in-law and John’s wife was my auntie and they were very close but she passed away.
About four months previously, my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so she was very ill, and I lost my mum four months later.
“It was just all consuming, I had no family left after my mother died so I had to do this for the family.”
Julie contacted Hugh James solicitors and was put in touch with Roman Kubiak, who handled her case.
It was also revealed that a second woman was named in the wills, who acted as a witness in the first two wills and was named as a beneficiary in the second two, to the tune of £120,000.
The contested will case went to court, and despite the major beneficiary turning down a lower offer from Julie, the court found against her and she received nothing. The second woman accepted a deal for a lower offer.
Julie said: “I was doing this while trying to run a business at the same time and the whole thing lasted quite a few years. She was sticking to her guns all along. It was indescribable when it was all over, it took quite a few years of my life and it was all for my family. I had a few wobblies but my mum was on one shoulder and my aunty Jill and John were on the other shoulder, and I am a fighter.”