A High Court judge rejected an appeal over a will which saw a man leave his entire estate to his mistress and nothing to his three children.
Mr Jordan’s (J) £2 million estate was left to his mistress, save £100,000 each for his two sisters and third child, Ruth Simmonds (S) following his separation from his wife in 2008.
However, in 2012 he changed his mind deciding to leave the entire estate to his now partner Ms Elliott (E). (J) died in August 2013 age 75.
Before the marriage broke down (J) had bought homes for his children. (S) argued she was entitled to the £100,000 to be left to her in the previous will. Arguing (J) may not have been in his right mind when he disinherited her.
In the High Court, Judge Edward Murray rejected her claim, saying that there was no sign (J) was ‘insane’ or ‘deluded’.
(S) claimed her father was ‘confused’ and not of sound mind when he signed the will in the care home and insisted, he had no reason to strip her of her inheritance. It was argued that there were ‘real doubts’ over his mental ability to make a valid will in the months before he died.
Counter evidence was produced and in the end the judge ruled against (S) and said there was “plenty of evidence” of (J’s) “firm intention” to leave everything he owned to his mistress.
The judge concluded (J) did not need to be of a “perfectly balanced mind” and his motives for disinheriting his first born (S) were irrelevant, even if they were “capricious, frivolous, mean or even bad”.
The judge added there is no evidence of a psychiatric condition amounting to disorder of the mind, no evidence of insane delusion or anything of that kind”