Suit claims dad excluded woman from will because she’s gay

VANCOUVER — A woman in Australia is suing her B.C. father’s estate, claiming she was frozen out of the will because of her sexual orientation.

In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Donna White says that in April 2001, her parents became distressed when she told them she was in a lesbian relationship. They never came to accept her sexual orientation, it says.

“As a result of Donna telling her parents that she was a homosexual, they treated her differently and unfairly from her siblings,” the lawsuit says. “Further, they isolated themselves from her and at various times told her that they did not want to see her and they would not accept her longtime partner, Ann Irwin, into their home.”

White says in the statement that when she married her partner in Ontario in 2010, her parents and siblings did not attend the wedding or acknowledge the marriage.

Her father, William Sydney Porteous, died in April at the age of 100. Her mother, Verna, died in November 2013 at the age of 97.

William Porteous’s will named White’s sister, Joan Eleanor Glossop of Richmond, as the executor of the estate and stipulated that the estate be divided equally between Joan and their brother, Earle George Porteous, who now lives in Australia. The will makes no provision for White, according to the lawsuit.

“The deceased did not make just, adequate and equitable provision for Donna in his will and the will should be varied as a result,” the suit says. “Donna’s sexual orientation is not a basis on which she should be disinherited by her father and he failed to satisfy his moral obligations to her when he decided to do so.”

The assets include an apartment on Minoru Boulevard in Richmond and an investment portfolio that had a value of approximately $300,000 in 2003, according to the suit.

The parents had transferred the property into joint tenancy with Glossop in 2004 and transferred the investments into joint ownership with Glossop in 2003, says the writ.

“Joan paid no consideration for any interest in either the property or the investments and she holds any interest that she has in these assets in trust for the estate.”

Don Glossop, the husband of Joan Glossop, said the parents had had no problems with White’s sexual orientation and added that she had been sent a copy of the will.