Family at war over £350k will could lose it all... as legal fees threaten to swallow fortune
A FAMILY has been branded “shameful” by a judge for battling in court over the £350,000 will of a patient killed by an ambulance crash.
Cancer sufferer Keith Fuller, 66, “would be horrified” if he knew his son and younger brother were warring over his estate.
High Court judge Master Jonathan Arkush also warned them they would be left with pennies by the time they paid their legal bills.
Mr Fuller died two days after the ambulance he was travelling in to hospital hit a roundabout and flipped over in Kent.
He had incurable bladder and prostate cancer but died from pneumonia resulting from chest injuries suffered in the smash.
His final will – written in January 2018, a month before he died – split his £350,000 estate equally between son Benjamin Ward-Fuller and younger brother Tony Fuller.
But Benjamin, 48, is suing his uncle
for all his dad’s money. He claims his father was not in his right mind when he signed it – and the previous will he made in 2005 should be honoured.
That left him everything, including his father’s Canterbury home.
But the judge said of the feud before him: “It is utterly disproportionate. It is shameful that this family should be split by this litigation and I think the deceased would be horrified
by it.” According to court papers, shotgun collector Keith told his son he would inherit everything in 2001 and his 2005 will confirmed it.
In 2017 he also asked Benjamin to give his shotgun collection to Tony after he died, keeping just one for himself.
Keith had been suffering from his second bout of cancer since 2010 and was in hospital when he signed his final will. Son Benjamin, of St Albans, Herts, claims that was organised by his uncle and a pre-drafted document was taken along by solicitors.
His lawyer Olivia Murphy said: “The deceased at the time when the pretended will purports to have been executed was not of sound mind, memory or understanding.”
His uncle Tony, 67, of Canterbury, denies arranging the meeting.
He says his brother had moments of confusion and lucidity, and did grasp what he was signing. He is backed by the lawyer involved.
The case reached court this week ahead of a four-day High Court trial in London next month.
Master Arkush told both sides their battle would likely leave them no wealthier but facing a judge “with a very sore head”.
He said the family should have done more to settle their differences, adding: “One can immediately see there have been all sorts of troubled history with this family – and this litigation is going to make this worse.”