Family wins share of £13 million left entirely to animal charities in woman's will

Telford's Martin-Kaye Solicitors successfully challenged the will of a woman who had planned to leave her entire £13 million estate to unnamed animal welfare charities.

She had previously never shown any particular interest in animals, solicitor Mohammed Ahsan said, and had created a number of different wills before she died.

The firm challenged the will, in what was the biggest litigation case it had ever handled, and £8 million of the money will now go to the company's client, who will also decide on which five charities will take away an equal share of the remaining £5 million.

Neither the family's identity nor its location have been revealed.

"Previously my client's mother had created a will saying her entire estate would be left to my client, but in the 10 years before her death, she created seven different wills leaving different sums of money to different people," Mr Ahsan said.

"Her final will instructed that she wanted all her money to go to the unnamed animal charities, but my client wanted to challenge it as she believed her mother had mental health problems."

The firm built up a case to demonstrate that the client's mother had lacked mental capacity, including obtaining reports from psychiatric experts, and taking previous legal cases into consideration.

"It was particularly bizarre that the client's mother had decided to leave the bulk of the estate to animal charities, despite previously not showing any concern for animals, and so the case was scheduled for a two-week trial at The Royal Courts of Justice," Mr Ahsan added.

"But we agreed to enter into mediation with the Attorney General at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London and now our client will receive around £8 million of the estate.

"The remaining £5 million will be paid to charities, but as part of the settlement, our client will be able to choose which five animal charities to nominate."