Bitter feud that’s left brother in UK’s wealthiest family facing care limbo
BrITAIn’s richest family were so busy feuding over money that a judge almost had to put their patriarch in a public nursing home, the high Court heard.
The extraordinary incident laid bare a bitter rift involving the hinduja brothers, srichand and Gopichand, whose family fortune of up to £28billion means they top the national ‘rich list’.
so when srichand, 86, was diagnosed with dementia, it should have been easy for his relatives to arrange private care.
Yet Court of Protection judge Mr Justice hayden revealed yesterday that the family were so pre-occupied with arguing over who had control over their vast assets they seemed incapable of sorting any nursing out for him.
nor could he trust srichand’s own daughters to represent his best interests, after they used his money for themselves – and an Official solicitor appointed by the Lord Chancellor had to be called in, the court was told.
The hinduja business empire was launched in India more than a century ago and now encompasses motor vehicles, chemicals, healthcare, banking and a huge property portfolio. But the friction behind the scenes has been laid bare by Judge hayden’s judgment, in which he said that srichand’s needs had been ‘marginalised’ as the row raged.
At its height, it meant that after the judge concluded srichand should leave hospital, his relatives failed to arrange private accommodation, despite the ‘extraordinary scope and reach of their financial capacity’.
As a result, said Judge hayden, he had been driven to consider putting the multi-billionaire in a public nursing home.
The Court of Protection deals with issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves.
Usually they are kept anonymous, but Judge hayden has made the case public after representations by journalists.
Official solicitor sarah Castle, whose office helps vulnerable people, was appointed to represent srichand – and argued reporters should name him, saying open reporting was likely to provide a ‘ protective layer’ for him. The case began more than two years ago when Gopichand, 82, challenged srichand’s decision to give power of attorney to daughters Vinoo and shanu. Gopichand argued that, due to his dementia, srichand could not have conferred that power.
Judge hayden said at one stage the daughters told how they ‘drew on srichand’s assets to fund their own costs of this litigation’, adding that the ‘conflict of interest was so flagrant’, that both Vinoo and shanu had disclaimed the role.
Instead, he appointed the Official solicitor to act for srichand.
srichand had been admitted to hospital in March 2021, amid reports he had ‘only a very short time to live’. But he ‘confounded his doctors’. Judge hayden said the family had also been embroiled in another high Court row in which srichand sued Gopichand and two other brothers, Prakash and Ashok, over a 2014 letter all four signed declaring ‘assets held in any single brother’s name belong to all four’.
srichand wanted a ruling that the letter had no legal effect.
Judge hayden said Gopichand now claims the row is over, and wanted the case kept anonymous – but the Appeal Court agreed the hindujas can be named.
‘Flagrant conflict of interests’