A grandad left five of his grandchildren £50 each from his £500,000 fortune after being “disappointed” that they did not visit him enough.
A judge recently ruled Fredrick Ward Snr from Ealing, London, who passed away in 2020, was entitled to make changes to his will, The Mirror reports.
A previous version of the veteran’s will would have included a sizable inheritance for five of his granddaughters but he later opted to split almost the entirety of fortune between his two surviving adult children, Terry Ward and Susan Wiltshire, rather than a third going to his late son’s children.
As a result, the children of his deceased son Frederick Ward Jnr were left with only £50 in an envelope which sparked a family row.
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A grandfather has left some of his grandchildren mostly out of his will
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The former soldier, who was 91 when he died, informed his legal representatives that he was “hurt” after his late son’s children didn’t visit him while he was in hospital three times with a lung condition.
Mr Ward’s five granddaughters - Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett – sued after finding out they had been disinherited.
The sisters claimed they should be entitled to their late father’s one-third share of the veteran’s fortune.
In their argument, the grandchildren asserted that their aunt and uncle had “unduly influenced” their grandfather which resulted in this decision being made.
High court judge Master James Brightwell threw out their case and said it was “entirely rational” for Mr Ward Snr cut out his grandchildren due to their “very limited contact” in recent years.
Prior to his death, the family patriarch made a will which split his estate, including his £450,000 maisonette, between all three of his children.
However, after Mr Ward Jnr’s death in 2015, the family fell out and the granddaughters did not interact much with Mr Ward Snr.
When the will was read out, a shouting match erupted between the five sisters and the rest of the family which was played to the court.
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A judge ruled Mr Ward Snr was entitled to make the changes to his will
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In his assessment of the case, Master Brightwell noted that the granddaughters had only made “very occasional short visits” to Mr Ward Snr while their aunt and uncle were very close with him, with Ms Wiltshire being her father’s carer.
The judge said: “In those circumstances, and despite a promise by Fred several years earlier to divide his estate between his children’s children if anything should happen to any of them, the 2018 will was in my view entirely rational.
“This does not mean that I cannot understand the claimants’ disappointment at being essentially left out."
“Some may take the view that, as a general proposition, when a testator’s child has predeceased him, he generally ought to leave an equal share of his residue to that child’s issue.”
