Dorothy Walker was an 80-year-old widow who lived with her cat, Pussy, and told her housekeeper that she preferred animals to people. So perhaps it wasn’t a shock that when she died, in 1988, she gave £2.7m to the RSPCA – £7m in today’s money.
Dogs, cats, donkeys and other abandoned pets continue to benefit from lavish legacies – often at the expense of children. But one estranged daughter, Heather Ilott, is £164,000 better off after successfully challenging her mother’s will, which left nearly £500,000 to the RSPCA, Blue Cross and the RSPB. Despite Melita Jackson’s will and clear accompanying letter – “If my daughter should bring a claim against my estate, I instruct my executors to defend such a claim as I can see no reason why my daughter should benefit in any way from my estate” – the court of appeal ruled that Ilott, a mother of five who lives in social housing and has never had a holiday, had a real need for some of her mother’s money – unlike the charities.
Could this case lead to more disinherited or impoverished relatives contesting bequests to relatively wealthy charities? Nearly £2bn is left in wills to charitable causes each year; abandoned pet charities do particularly well. The RSPCA received £63.7m from bequests in 2014 – dwarfing the £43.1m it obtained from donations and other contributions. The Devon Donkey Sanctuary’s income was £30.7m in 2013/14, compared with just £15.1m for the three biggest domestic violence charities, according to New Philanthropy Capital. Lawyers point out that wills have always been challenged in the courts, but James Aspden of Wilsons law firm, who represents the three charities, says the court of appeal’s verdict is “a worrying decision” for anyone “having the freedom to choose who will receive their property when they die”.
“It ought not to set a precedent because this is such an unusual and specific case, but people will see this and be encouraged by it to challenge what is in relatives’ wills,” he says.
However, charities are not always the losers when pitted against relatives in battles of wills. Last month, the court of appeal ruled in favour of charities including Blue Cross, the Donkey Sanctuary and Chilterns Dog Rescue Society who had been left a £350,000 house by June Fairbrother – a will unsuccessfully contested by her nephew.
