Latest news with #inheritance
News.com.au
16 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Excessive': Insane family feud reignited after stair death
EXCLUSIVE An ugly family feud involving the $40 million fortune of a wealthy Australian family has been reignited – thirteen years after the mother was found dead in a pool of blood in Sydney's east. Millionaire businessman Giovanni 'John' Angius found his ex-wife Laura dead at the bottom of the staircase of their $6 million home in 2012, in a case that remains unsolved. However, it was in 2022 after Mr Angius died from COVID-19 at 85, that the family's history was examined in court, as both his mistress and granddaughter lodged claims over his estimated $38 million fortune, which was left entirely to his daughter Jenny. Last year, the NSW Supreme Court ruled Mr Angius' lover Thi Quy Le was entitled to $250,000 and a Waterloo unit block he owned, which she ran as a laundromat, after finding they had a 'close personal relationship'. Ms Le, who was 27 years his junior, told the court they started having an affair in 2003. The court also found his granddaughter Natalie, who has multiple sclerosis, was entitled to $2.55 million of the estate after deeming she was partly financially dependent on Mr Angius due to her medical condition. However, this week, the messy case was thrust back into the NSW Supreme Court as Jenny appealed the court's decision to award her niece Natalie the $2.55 million. The court heard how Jenny claimed the amount was 'excessive' and argued that Natalie could work despite her condition as her health was 'stable'. 'Jenny was critical of the primary judge's assessment of the expert evidence regarding Natalie's medical condition, submitting that the award did not correctly take into account her current health and level of disability,' the court decision stated. 'As Natalie submitted, Jenny's focus on Natalie's health at the time of the hearing failed to account for the evidence that her lifetime needs would grow as her condition deteriorated.' Jenny also argued the court had 'imposed the entire burden of her care onto [Natalie's] grandfather's estate'. The court heard that Natalie 'accepted' the amount awarded to her was large, however, was in the context of an 'extremely large' estate. Justice Mark Richmond upheld the decision of the original judge and dismissed the case with costs. Divorce, death and deception The court previously heard how the family first began feuding in 2011 when Mr and Mrs Angius separated. The separation came about four years after Mrs Angius first learnt about her husband's affair with Ms Le. According to court documents, Mr Angius' daughter Jenny took his side, while their son Robert took their mother's. When Mrs Angius died, their son Robert told how he climbed a tree and jumped through a window to retrieve a hidden will she wrote in Italian. The rift led to the insane scenario of Robert and Mr Angius bidding against one another for the Coogee home. John eventually bought the home for $6 million, about $2 million above reserve. As the auction ended, a victorious Mr Angius Snr shouted to the stunned crowd: 'Someone understand me. My wife never wanted to sell this house. She never wanted to die here.' Robert was eventually given Mrs Angius' entire $13 million fortune, however, is estranged from his first wife Silvana and daughter Natalie. Mrs Angius' death led to a coronial inquest, however, was left open and handed to the unsolved homicide squad. None of Mrs Angius's family was accused of any wrongdoing in relation to her death, and nobody has ever been arrested or charged.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
NYC Property Heirs Battle Over More Than $1.7 Billion in Assets
The heirs to Sol Goldman's real estate fortune are taking a new step in their battle over a property empire worth more than $1.7 billion. One of Sol's daughters, Amy Goldman Fowler, and a grandson, Steven Gurney-Goldman, asked a New York court to remove two of Sol's daughters, Jane Goldman and Diane Goldman Kemper, as executors of the estate of Lillian Goldman, Sol's wife who died more than two decades ago.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Nazi hunter who left fortune to his third wife after cutting his children and grandchildren out of his will was not victim of 'undue influence', court rules
A Nazi hunter who cut his children and grandchildren out of his will and instead left his fortune to his third wife was not the victim of 'undue influence', a court has ruled. Self-styled 'Lord' Peter Eden changed his will the year before his death aged 99 so that all his shares in his property company were left to 'Lady' Joy Eden, 85. He had initially left a third of his 60 per cent holding in his property company to Joy and two thirds to his grandchildren, the offspring of his daughters from his third marriage. But Eden re-wrote his will to leave all the company shares, reportedly worth an estimated £2million, to Joy, who he had been married to for 20 years. His wife also inherited the £1.5million family home they shared in Hampstead, north London. His grandchildren were left watches, a cousin was given £250,000 and his housekeeper was handed £25,000, The Times reported. But Eden's daughters, Tamara Eden Goodchild and Vanita Eden, were cut out. When Eden died in December 2020, his heirs ended up locked in a legal dispute that meant his estate could not be shared. Ms Goodchild reportedly claimed that her father had been subjected to 'undue influence' and had lacked the mental capacity to write his will. She argued that his original 2017 will was the one that should be enforced. On Tuesday, the High Court in London approved a deal that will see Joy Eden receive 84 per cent of the shares of her husband's property company. His daughters will get 4 per cent, Vanita's daughter will also get four per cent and Ms Goodshild's three children will share the same amount. Judge Mr Justice Dray said Eden's 2019 will 'does not offend common sense'. 'The instructions of Lord Eden were clear, namely that he wanted his shares [in the property company] to pass to his wife absolutely.' Germany-born Eden had fled his home country to Britain as a teenager after being arrested by the Gestapo for having a relationship with a non-Jewish girl. When the Second World War began, he was interned along with thousands of others as an 'enemy alien ' and then sent to Australia for year. At some point he began calling himself 'Lord', but had not been given any official title. Eden was able to come to London in April 1939 because one of his uncles was a practising dental surgeon in the capital and had secured him a visa to leave Germany. Before he was interned in May 1940, a took up a job in a welding factory. Once in Australia, he enrolled in the army and then was sent back to England to join the Pioneer Corps in Ilfracombe, Devon. He later served in North Africa and Palestine. After the war had ended, he was posted to Germany with the Intelligence Corps. It was there that Eden was involved in helping to track down Nazis and had a role in the war crimes trial of 22 Germans accused of shooting British pilots. In a 1998 interview with the Imperial War Museum, Eden spoke of finding people who had run concentration camps and identifying members of the SS. He was demobilised in May 1947 and then launched into a career in the fashion industry. In the 1960s he entered the hotel business, buying two near Hyde Park in London. Eden later owned more than a dozen restaurants alongside his hotels.
BreakingNews.ie
4 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Will with handwritten changes did not amount to revocation, High Court rules
Handwritten changes to a former publican's homemade will dealing with the bequest of a valuable Dublin property did not amount to a partial revocation or destruction of the will, the High Court has ruled. Ms Justice Siobhan Stack said the will of Michael (Mick) Joseph McNally, who died in June 2019, could be admitted to probate after she found the handwritten changes were invalid. Advertisement The judge said the circumstances of this case "demonstrate once again the importance of taking legal advice on all aspects of the drawing up and alteration of a will". Her decision means the bequeathed house on South Circular Road, Dublin, has been left to the estate of his brother Eamonn, who died in 2020. If the changes had been found valid, it would mean the property would be divided up between his three remaining siblings and Eamonn's widow Monica. The court heard Monica had not objected to admitting the will to probate on the basis that the bequest of the property to Eamonn had been validly removed and should therefore be regarded as blank. She expressed some disappointment however that Michael always promised to leave it to Eamonn, the judge said. Mr McNally, who was unmarried and had no children, ran the Headline Bar in Clanbrassil Street, Dublin, before returning to live until his death in his native Virginia, Co Cavan, with another brother Malachy. He was one of ten children, six of whom predeceased him. Advertisement The will, dated April 29th, 1981, was made out on a preprinted form and completed by Michael in manuscript. The only asset was the Dublin house, other properties and assets having been apparently disposed of during his lifetime, the judge said. The original bequest of this property to Eamonn was the subject of an attempted obliteration. There was also an alteration in which the bequest of the property was replaced with a bequest to Eamonn in the sum of IR£1. The executor of the will has since died and in 2023, Malachy sought to have the will admitted to probate which means the proceeds of the will could be distributed. The judge said that although Malachy's application did not explicitly refer to it, it was, in reality, an application to admit the will to probate on the basis that the destruction of the bequest meant it should be admitted to probate and that the property now falls to be dealt with by way of a partial intestacy. Advertisement She said it was in August 2009 that another since deceased brother, Tom, gave Malachy the will along with other personal effects of Michael. Malachy remembered this because Tom died two days later. The judge said the original will was witnessed by two bank officials who it had not been possible to trace. She accepted Malachy's evidence that he (Malachy) did not open the will and it was not altered between 2009 and 2019 when Michael died. However, that still left a period of 28 years from the execution of the will, during which the attempted obliteration and alteration could have been made, she said. The judge said it seemed to her that as the purported obliteration did not render the words underneath indecipherable, it could not be regarded as an act of 'destruction' and it therefore cannot amount to a partial revocation. Advertisement As a result, she said the attempt to change the will so as to replace the bequest of the property to Eamonn with a bequest of IR£1, was invalid as a matter of law, she said. In coming to this conclusion, the judge stressed there are very sound policy reasons behind the relevant law (Section 86 of 1965 Succession Act). Ireland Trading results at Sean Quinn's former Cavan hotel... Read More These aim to prevent any dispute as to their execution by the testator and, in particular, operate to ensure that alterations are not made by another person, whether before or after death, she said. She also stressed she was not suggesting that any person who had custody or of access to the will would have attempted to alter its terms and in fact it seems likely it was Michael who made the alterations himself. However, she said she could not be sure of this but it was clear the changes were not executed and witnessed. The judge will deal later with who is to be appointed to take out the grant of probate.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Handwritten changes to homemade will dealing with South Circular Road property were invalid, judge rules
Handwritten changes to a former publican's homemade will dealing with the bequest of a valuable Dublin property did not amount to a partial revocation or destruction of the will, the High Court has ruled. Ms Justice Siobhan Stack said the will of Michael (Mick) Joseph McNally, who died in June 2019, could be admitted to probate after she found the handwritten changes were invalid. The judge said the circumstances of this case 'demonstrate once again the importance of taking legal advice on all aspects of the drawing up and alteration of a will'. Her decision means the bequeathed house on South Circular Road, Dublin, has been left to the estate of his brother Eamonn, who died in 2020. If the changes had been found valid, it would mean the property would be divided up between his three remaining siblings and Eamonn's widow Monica. READ MORE The court heard Monica had not objected to admitting the will to probate on the basis that the bequest of the property to Eamonn had been validly removed and should therefore be regarded as blank. Mr McNally, who was unmarried and had no children, ran the Headline Bar in Clanbrassil Street, Dublin, before returning to live until his death in his native Virginia, Co Cavan, with another brother Malachy. He was one of ten children, six of whom predeceased him. The will, dated April 29th, 1981, was made out on a preprinted form and completed by Michael in manuscript. The only asset was the Dublin house, other properties and assets having been apparently disposed of during his lifetime, the judge said. The original bequest of this property to Eamonn was the subject of an attempted obliteration. There was also an alteration in which the bequest of the property was replaced with a bequest to Eamonn in the sum of IR£1. The executor of the will has since died and in 2023 Malachy sought to have the will admitted to probate, which means the proceeds of the will could be distributed. The judge said that although Malachy's application did not explicitly refer to it, it was, in reality, an application to admit the will to probate on the basis that the destruction of the bequest meant it should be admitted to probate and that the property now falls to be dealt with by way of a partial intestacy. She said it was in August 2009 that another since deceased brother, Tom, gave Malachy the will along with other personal effects of Michael. Malachy remembered this because Tom died two days later. The judge said the original will was witnessed by two bank officials who it had not been possible to trace. She accepted Malachy's evidence that he (Malachy) did not open the will and it was not altered between 2009 and 2019 when Michael died. However, that still left a period of 28 years from the execution of the will, during which the attempted obliteration and alteration could have been made, she said. The judge said it seemed to her that as the purported obliteration did not render the words underneath indecipherable, it could not be regarded as an act of 'destruction' and it therefore cannot amount to a partial revocation. As a result, she said the attempt to change the will so as to replace the bequest of the property to Eamonn with a bequest of IR£1, was invalid as a matter of law, she said. In coming to this conclusion, the judge stressed there are very sound policy reasons behind the relevant law (Section 86 of 1965 Succession Act). These aim to prevent any dispute as to their execution by the testator and, in particular, operate to ensure that alterations are not made by another person, whether before or after death, she said. She also stressed she was not suggesting that any person who had custody or of access to the will would have attempted to alter its terms and in fact it seems likely it was Michael who made the alterations himself. However, she said she could not be sure of this but it was clear the changes were not executed and witnessed. The judge will deal later with who is to be appointed to take out the grant of probate.
