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Family win 16-year legal battle for £900,000 will
Kiran Randhawa17 Oct 2008
A WEALTHY pensioner was mentally ill when she left £900,000 to a "manipulative and calculating" doctor, the High Court has ruled.
Alice Adam left everything to Dr Bilyana Valkova, who began lodging with her after treating her in hospital.
But after her death, the 91-year-old's family disputed the will claiming it was not witnessed properly.
A judge this week upheld the claim ending a 16-year legal battle.
Mrs Adam, who fled post-war Europe in 1947, lived in Kilburn until she died in October 1991. A year before her death she changed her will twice within days, leaving everything to Dr Valkova.
Mr Justice Blackburne described Dr Valkova as "manipulative and calculating", saying Mrs Adam lacked the legal capacity to validly make the wills.
He ruled her estate would go to her brother's family, in accordance with her original will made in 1978.
Dr Valkova, 67, who worked at Charing Cross Hospital, the Royal Brompton and St Mary's, argued that Mrs Adam had fallen out with her brother, Eugen Rapke.
She alleged that Mrs Adam disapproved of her brother's wartime activities, during which he served in the German army and survived the Battle of Stalingrad.
Dr Valkova also claimed that Mr Rapke and his daughter were, "heartless, interfering, self-seeking and scheming".
The judge rejected those arguments, and said that any dislike Mrs Adam had for her brother was a manifestation of her poor mental health in her final years.
He added that Mr Rapke had frequently written to his sister and had visited her on her 90th birthday.
Mrs Adam and Mr Rapke belonged to a "close knit family" said the judge.
He added that medical evidence suggested Mrs Adam who at her peak spoke five languages and swapped letters in 1975 with former prime minister Edward Heath was suffering from "moderate to severe dementia" by the time the wills were made.
Dr Valkova won a High Court ruling in 1998, but the family refused to give up and that decision was overturned at the Court of Appeal in February 2005.
