Family appeal to recover £10m left to takeaway owners
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A LEEDS man and his cousins have begun a legal appeal for their share of a relative’s £10m fortune.
Mervyn Lebor, of Stainburn Avenue, Moor Allerton, wants the will of his aunt, Golda Bechal, in which she left her entire estate to Chinese takeaway owners, to be declared invalid. Yesterday, London’s Court of Appeal heard that an earlier ruling that the widow knew what she was doing was “plainly wrong”.In November last year, Judge Sir Donald Rattee paved the way for Kim Sing Man and his wife Bee Lian Man, from Essex, to inherit the fortune of 88-year-old Mrs Bechal, with whom they had been friends since the 1960s.
The Mayfair resident had died in 2004, and under wills made in May and August 1994, the Mans got the vast majority of her estate, which comprised a string of investment properties across the South East and London.
At the High Court, Mrs Bechal’s family unsuccessfully challenged the wills, arguing that although the Mans had done nothing wrong, the millionairess did not have the legal capacity to make a valid will and did not know or approve of its contents.
Following a lengthy hearing, Sir Donald ruled that, although suffering from mild dementia, Mrs Bechal was mentally well enough at the time of making the wills to know what she was doing.
At yesterday’s appeal hearing, Geoffrey Vos QC urged three senior judges to overturn the ruling, and said Sir Donald’s reasons for finding in favour of the Mans had been “very flimsy” and he had not dealt with a “vast body of evidence” which supported the case of the family.
Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Andrew Morritt, Lord Justice Jacob and Lord Justice Lloyd are being asked to make the rare step of reversing a decision based mainly on factual evidence rather than legal authority.
The barrister argued that she had made a number of “surprising” spelling mistakes and errors on a form used to draw up the documents and got her own date of birth wrong.
The court also heard that Mrs Bechal’s dementia had manifested itself in an “irrational, unjustified dislike and suspicion of her family”. Proceeding
This is an article taken from Yorkshire Evening Post 18/06/08
