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ARTICLE · 16 DECEMBER 2009

Contested Wills On The Increase

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Earlier this month the High Court found in favour of Christine Gill, a University lecturer, who contested the will of her mother in which the family farm was left to the RSPCA.

United KingdomFamily and Matrimonial
Paul Hewitt
Paul Hewitt
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Earlier this month the High Court found in favour of Christine Gill, a University lecturer, who contested the will of her mother in which the family farm was left to the RSPCA. Gill successfully argued that she had been given repeated assurances from her parents that she would inherit the family home, worth £2.3 million, when her parents died and her mother had only left the property to the RSPCA as a result of the coercion of her father who had died in 1999. The battle rumbles on as the RSPCA are appealing the High Court's decision but in the meantime the concern is that such a high profile case will lead others to contest wills in which estates or significant portion's of estates are left to charity.

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