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A woman who contested her parents' will after they left their £2 million estate to the RSPCA today won her legal challenge.
Christine Gill, 58, a university lecturer, started her legal battle in July last year to challenge the will, which she claimed her father coerced her mother into making.
After her mother's death in 2006, Dr Gill discovered her parents, John and Joyce Gill, had made wills leaving their 287-acre farm to each other and then to the animal charity when both died.
During previous High Court hearings in Leeds, Judge James Allen QC had heard how Dr Gill — an only child — was given repeated assurances that she would inherit Potto Carr Farm in North Yorkshire when her parents died.
She told the court she had devoted most of her spare time over more than 30 years to voluntarily helping at the farm. When Mr Gill died in 1999, aged 82, Dr Gill was left to look after her mother and run the farm. She moved next door with her husband and son.
It was only when her mother died in 2006, also aged 82, that Dr Gill saw the will leaving everything to the RSPCA.
The court heard Mrs Gill suffered from agoraphobia with panic disorder, went everywhere with her husband, who was said to be stubborn and domineering, and was dependent on him.
Psychiatrists said it was likely Mrs Gill would have conformed with the wishes of her husband when they made their wills in 1993 and her anxiety and her dependence on Mr Gill would have made it very difficult for her to take in the proceedings or disagree with what he wanted to do.
But experts disagreed about Mrs Gill's mental state, with one telling the court she was eccentric but did not have a formal psychiatric disorder.
The judgment in favour of Dr Gill, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was handed down in Leeds this morning. It means she will inherit the farm.
In his judgment, Judge James Allen QC said it would be “unconscionable” if she did not. He found Mrs Gill had been “coerced” by her husband into a will that was contrary to her wishes.
The court found that Dr Gill's mother had wanted her daughter to inherit, but Mr Gill had exerted pressure over her to favour the RSPCA.
The court heard that Mrs Gill had “an avowed dislike” of the charity.
The judge agreed with expert evidence heard during last year's hearings that Mrs Gill suffered from agoraphobia and severe anxiety. He described Mr Gill as a “bully” and a “domineering” and “determined” man.
He found that Mr Gill had used his wife's anxiety to coerce her.
Reader views (9)
I am surprised the RSPCA fought this one. Not great advertising for their organisation.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 12/10/2009 10:24
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Bob - Cheam. You failed to read that Dr Gill is a university lecturer, not an MD/GP. University lecturers are not well off at all. There was a verbal intention from the parent to give her daughter the farm on her death, which resulted in Dr Gill moving to the farm to support her widowed mother. I find it incredible that the RSPCA is considering appealing against this legal ruling.
- Mark, London, 12/10/2009 10:02
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The court was asked to accept that the mother really did dislike the RSPCA and was therefore unlikely to have made the original bequest entirely of her own volition. However, how come she didn't then change the will after her allegedly domineering husband's death in 1999, if that's the case? In those seven years between her hubby's death and her own, she chose to do precisely nothing. Why? An obvious question which this account fails to answer. Hmm...
- K Lynch, Dublin, 09/10/2009 16:53
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May I wish Dr.Gill and her family all the best for the future. I have today made arrangements to remove the RSPCA from my will, as have two of my friends. We all feel that this case has left us with an uneasy feeling about that particular organisation.
- Mj, East Anglia, 09/10/2009 16:39
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Bob, Cheam, I agree 100% with you on this one. Challenges the will now both parents are not there to stand their ground.
- Dom, London, 09/10/2009 16:28
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Yeeee Hoooo!!! Bloody Brilliant! Well done!
- Steve, Brentford, 09/10/2009 14:46
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I find it curious that she would even contend this, she's a doctor and obviously well off and it was her parents money to do with as they saw fit, if they wanted to leave it to charity then so be it. Unless there are other mitigating circumstances then I would hazard that the motivation was pure greed.
- Bob, Cheam, 09/10/2009 14:04
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Excellent decision as the RSPCA has become an "Anti" organization, heavily politicized. Good for you Dr Gill!
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove, 09/10/2009 13:52
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I remember when i first read about Mrs Gill's plight concerning what i believed to be her rightful inheritence. The RSPCA should be ashamed of their actions. Humans are animals as well.
- Mark Taylor, Dronfield, 09/10/2009 13:38
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