Gran wins legal battle with dead lover’s widow to stay in her home
A GRANDMOTHER yesterday won a landmark legal battle to stay in her home after her dead partner’s estranged wife inherited half of the property.
Joy Williams, 69, lived with dentist Norman Martin for almost 20 years, but they never married and he never legally divorced his wife Maureen.
When he died in 2012 from a heart attack aged 69, Mrs Martin inherited half of the three-bedroom bungalow in Dorchester, Dorset, that Mr Martin and Miss Williams had bought together. Miss Williams, who has four children from a previous marriage, had faced losing her £355,000 home as she could not afford to buy out Mrs Martin’s share.
She and Mr Martin – who were described as ‘soulmates’ – bought the house as tenants in common, meaning the property did not automatically pass to her after his death.
Lawyers for Miss Williams urged a judge at the Central London County Court to award Mr Martin’s share to her so she could have ‘some security for the future’.
The case was contested by Mrs Martin, 73, who was supported by her daughters, solicitors Louise and Emma. But yesterday Judge Nigel Gerald ruled in favour of Miss Williams, saying it was only ‘fair and reasonable’ that she should ‘retain an absolute interest’ in her home. The case will not set a legal precedent, but experts said it could be cited in future cases involving the law on cohabitation.
The judge dismissed claims by Mrs Martin, who he described as ‘powerful and difficult’, that she was not in fact estranged from her late husband as ‘ simple disingenuity’. He said she and her daughters had already been ‘well provided for’ by Mr Martin in a formal financial settlement after the split in 1994.
The court heard that Mrs Martin inherited the original family home, worth more than £400,000, while a dental surgery, shop, cottage and a house in Winchester worth over £600,000 had already been gifted to their children.
Mrs Martin, who was not in court, was ordered to pay £100,000 towards Miss Williams’s legal costs within 42 days pending a detailed assessment.
The court heard that Mr Martin and Miss Williams had an affair in 1977, but she refused to leave her husband. Mr Martin then contacted her ‘out of the blue’ in the 1980s and they eventually left their spouses in the 1990s. They moved in together in July 1994 and remained committed to each other until Mr Martin’s death. After splitting from his wife Mr Martin maintained a joint account with her into which he paid most of his wages. Mrs Martin admitted that she checked the account every day.
The couple never divorced because of the ‘hassle and cost’, the court heard. Mrs Martin’s case was that she had remained the dentist’s wife and he was living two ‘parallel lives’.
But Judge Gerald said: ‘Mrs Martin had her eye on the money the whole way through... I never heard of anyone checking their bank account every day for 18 years.’
Ruling for Miss Williams, he said it was ‘quite plain’ that she and Mr Martin had in ‘all material respects’ lived in the same household as husband and wife ‘in which they expected to spend the rest of their lives’.
Miss Williams said afterwards she was relieved but it had been traumatic that ‘this level of serious relationship is not currently recognised by the law and I had to bring this claim’. Mrs Martin’s daughter Louise said the family would appeal.
‘Living two parallel lives’