The £1.9m will of a llama-loving pensioner has caused a High Court fight that saw rival alpaca, donkey and bear enthusiasts scrapping over her money.
Conservationist Candia Midworth was a passionate animal-lover, who kept and bred llamas at her Surrey farm. She was a director of the British Llama and Alpaca Association and editor of its magazine, the Camelids Chronicle.
She was widowed decades ago, and when she died in 2022 she left a will dividing her £1.9m fortune equally between six charities supporting different animals around the world.
But the will ended up at the centre of a High Court battle after British Camelids Ltd, the charitable arm of the British Llama and Alpaca Association, claimed half of the money for itself.
Because three of the causes named in Midworth’s will no longer exist in the exact form she stated, while another doesn’t exist at all, the gifts to them should fail, the llama charity claimed.
However, after a trial at the London court, a judge, Master Katherine McQuail, has now made an order that the money be used for the benefit of donkeys, mules and bears as well as llamas and alpacas.
Among others, £300,000-plus shares will go to World Animal Protection for its work with captive bears; to the Brooke Hospital for Animals for its support of working horses, mules and donkeys; and towards zoo watchdog work at the Born Free Foundation.
Giving her judgment, the judge said the will should be construed as providing for gifts to be made in respect of the “charitable purposes” of the causes Midworth stipulated, and that just because the specific entities she named no longer exist in the same form, it does not mean the gifts should fail.
The court heard that Midworth, whose husband Julian died in 1996, kept and bred llamas at her farm, Banks Way House, in Effingham, Surrey, from at least the mid-1980s.
As well as being an active member of the British Llama and Alpaca Association and editor of the Camelid Chronicle, she became a director of British Camelids.
The charity was set up to “encourage and improve the breeding of and fibre production from camelids in the UK”, said the judge, as well as to undertake research and to promote camelid rearing.
Camelid is the classification of animal to which both alpacas and llamas belong.
Midworth died aged 78 in 2022, and in her final will – written in 1994 – she left her prints and pictures of llamas, and the llamas she owned at the date of her death, to friends.
Under the wording of her will, shares of her estate – valued at around £1.9m – were to go to British Camelids, the Brooke Hospital for Animals, Burstow Wildlife Sanctuary, and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
She also specifically named the Libearty Campaign of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, which was aimed at ending cruelty to captive bears, and a zoo watchdog campaign of the Born Free Foundation as beneficiaries.
However, British Camelids took the case to court, claiming that because some of the specific entities in her will no longer exist, only it and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection should benefit.
For British Camelids, barrister Emilia Carslaw argued that the wording of the will was simple and that the gifts were “expressly subject to the condition that the named legatees be in existence at the date of Mrs Midworth’s death in order to benefit”.
But lawyers for the other charities claimed that the activities Midworth had wanted to support still continue, and that her money should be channelled in that way.
Just because the charities operated under different names or charity numbers, or had stopped campaigning under the names of projects named in the will, did not mean that the gifts should fail, it was argued.
Master McQuail said the will should be interpreted as a desire to support the “charitable purposes” of the organisations it named, which are ongoing, regardless of the specific legal entity carrying them on and the project title under which they are doing so.
The Brooke Hospital, which supports working donkeys, mules and horses, continues to operate, although under a different charity number to that specified in Midworth’s will, the court heard.
"Since [it] is carrying on the charitable purposes of the Brooke Hospital for Animals, I conclude that the will is to be construed as making a gift of a share of residue to [it],” said the judge.
In relation to the Born Free Foundation’s Zoo Check Project and the World Society for the Protection of Animals’ bear-related Libearty Campaign, those specific titles are no longer used, she continued. However, both charities had given evidence that the “relevant charitable purposes” were continuing, but no longer under the campaign names that Midworth had specified in her will.
“I conclude that the will is to be construed as making gifts of shares of residue ... for the purposes of the Zoo Check Project and the Libearty Campaign, even though those projects do not have a continuing separate identity,” she added.
Although the Burstow Wildlife Sanctuary no longer existed, the gift to it could only fail if its charitable purposes also no longer existed or were incapable of implementation, said the judge.
“Those charitable purposes have not ceased to exist or to be capable of implementation, and it appears from the evidence that the charitable purposes are ones which are carried on by at least [Brooke Hospital, Born Free and World Animal Protection].
“In those circumstances I consider that it would be appropriate to direct, by way of scheme, that the share of residue intended for the Burstow Wildlife Sanctuary’s purposes be paid among some, at least, of the parties to the proceedings.”
The ruling means British Camelids, the Brooke Hospital, Born Free, World Animal Protection and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection will each get a one-sixth share, worth over £300,000, of the widow’s £1.9m fortune.
The final sixth will be divided under terms to be decided at a later date.
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