A retired man excludes his family from his will and leaves the inheritance to a more deserving person
Wills and inheritance are often reasons for family disputes and this story went so far it ended up in court. An elderly man named Ronald Butcher left his £500,000 fortune on his death to Daniel Sharp, a man who once offered to clean his gutters for free, and cutting his family out of his will. Mr. Butcher allegedly changed his will two months before his death and according to his family it could not be his true last wish.
via Daily Mail
Upon discovering Mr. Butcher’s will, Sharp was shocked: he certainly didn't expect to be included in the will and insisted that he had nothing to do with the man’s changing his will. The two, after the episode concerning the gutter, had maintained a wonderful relationship for six years: they had become great friends.
Why did he make the decision to exclude his family from the will? His family consisted of his cousins, Joyce Gilkerson, Evelyn Hutchins and Peter Rogers, the children of a close schoolmate, who regarded him as their "Uncle Ron". Butcher's family asked Judge Lesley Anderson QC to invalidate the will in favor of an earlier version which named them as beneficiaries. Before the change, the three relatives were in fact equal beneficiaries of the will.
Evelyn and Peter admit that, after their mother's death, they didn't visit Ronald often even though they deny that they had completely lost contact. They didn't spend a lot of time with him, but visited him whenever they could. According to Mr. Sharp's lawyer, Mr. Butcher was a lonely man who found a friend in Mr. Sharp and knew what he was doing when he drafted the will: the two had a common interest in DIY and Butcher was was struck by the gentle soul of the man who did a job for him without asking for anything in return.
