Woman may lose home in tussle with RNLI
Daughter of former lifeboatman who contested his will is told by judge she must pay legal costs
A DISINHERITED daughter faces losing her home in a legal battle with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) over her father’s £300,000 estate.
Sonya Young took the RNLI to court after discovering that her father, Brian Cole, a former lifeboatman, had “disinherited” her in his will leaving £268,000 to the charity.
Mrs Young, who received only £5,000 from her 70-year-old father’s estate after he killed himself in 2013, tried to argue that he was not in his right mind when he executed his will 25 days before his suicide.
But in July last year, Judge Teverson found in favour of the charity, upholding the will and ruling that Cole made a conscious decision to “disinherit” his daughter after the pair fell out.
Mrs Young, of St Ambrose Close, Dinas Powys, Wales, went on to pay out £214,000 of her father’s money to the RNLI, but had already “dissipated” £54,000 while it was in her hands, the court heard.
This week Judge Bowles ordered Mrs Young pay the charity a total of £140,000 to cover the shortfall, plus legal costs.
The order meant that her £260,000 family home – which she was awarded by a divorce court earlier this year – would have to be sold off so she could pay what she owes the charity.
Phillip Young, her former husband, was in court at an earlier hearing and told Judge Teverson: “She gave up work to fight this case. Because of what she’s done, everything that I’ve worked for that should have gone to my children is going to be handed to the RNLI. I do feel bitter about it.”
Judge Bowles made the order after hearing that Mrs Young had “admitted having the assets in her hands” and that she had “held and partly dissipated them”.
The judge approved charging orders of £82,243.10 to cover the shortfall in repayment plus interest, as well as another £38,825.65 in legal costs. He said a further £26,000 charging order for her costs bill had already been approved.
During the legal battle over Cole’s estate, the court heard that he was worth around £300,000 when he died.
He had named his only daughter as his main heir in 2008, but in a later will in 2012 he largely “disinherited her” in favour of his girlfriend, Angela Saunders. His last will in 2013 – which he signed weeks before his death – left both women only £5,000 each, with nearly all of his assets going to the RNLI in honour of his former service “for the purpose of the upkeep of the Penarth lifeboat”.
Cole told the lawyer who prepared his last will that he had been a crew member of the Penarth lifeboat “many years ago” and wanted the RNLI to get most of his wealth.
Daniel Burton, the RNLI’S barrister, told the court there was a troubled history between father and daughter and that there had been some “fundamental disagreement” between them.
But Mrs Young said her father had a history of drinking heavily and suggested he may have been deluded when his last will was executed.