Does she have to cough up?

[greyfur]

Can you please advise? A friend was the sole beneficiary of her mother's will. Her brother contested the will and lost. The mother had a car which was signed over to the beneficiary by a solicitor who was the executor of the will, and she has a letter to say that she could do what she wanted with it from the solicitor. She sold the car. This is over three years ago. The brother is now saying he wants the money for the car. The mother told him he could have it on her deathbed but she did not have full mental capacity. The beneficiary asked her brother what he wanted to do with the car before the solicitor signed it over, and he said he didn't want it. He is also saying he wants items that were given to him when he was a child and things he gave his sister as gifts. He says he will go the Police and ask them to return the proceeds of the car to him as it is stolen goods. Does this friend have to give him what he wants? He is threatening her with legal action.

[PallasAthena]

greyfur No your friend does not have to give her brother anything.

Shouting about the police in a case like this is just what people do to threaten and try and get their own way. Ignore it, it's not a criminal matter and nothing to do with the police. The allegation that the car is stolen is nonsense and your friend has the letter from the solicitor/Executor to prove it. Anyway she sold it three years ago!

If the car was owned by your friend's mother it was part of her Estate and ownership of everything in her Estate has passed to your friend, including the car. Which is what the solicitor/Executor of your mother's Estate told her, that the car was hers to do what she liked with it. She chose to sell it and that was her right, just like everybody else has a right to sell their own car and keep the cash.

Her brother has already failed in an attempt to challenge the Will three years ago so that's an end to it. If he really believes he has a right to start a new claim against his sister based on an alleged deathbed promise to give the car to him he should go and see a solicitor and get some advice. But from what you say I'm confident he'd be wasting his time and money. Even if he brought a claim it would have to be against the Executor. The Executor was the solicitor, not your friend. Good luck to him with suing the solicitor.

Let me guess: (1) the brother is now short of money and is trying it on to see if he can get money from his sister, (2) this alleged deathbed promise was never put in writing, and (3) there were no witnesses to the alleged deathbed promise.

Things he gave his sister as gifts are exactly that, gifts to her. So they now belong to her. He isn't entitled to ask for them back. (I assume they were just the usual sort of gifts within a family, not something legally conditional.)

So in short, no she doesn't have to do any of the things he is asking. If he wants to start legal action or call the police your friend should just call his bluff. "Go ahead then".

[atticus]

I agree. Tell your friend's brother to grow up.

[greyfur]

Thank you to those who have replied. I have discussed it with my friend. The brother had not spoken to his mother for a year before he contested the will. His mother was at the end of her life with illnesses and was admitted to hospital with a condition that was affecting her brain. A few days after being admitted, the mother was resuscitated and the sister - who had had no contact with her brother for a year - called him to let him know about his mother. The brother and his wife and the sister visited the mother in hospital. The mother had forgotten she had made a will when she had full mental capacity and thought that the son and his wife were now on friendly terms because they were visiting. She suddenly remembered she had a car, which was not mentioned in the will and said he could have it, or the proceeds from it. The brother heard this and saw pound signs. But the mother also asked her daughter how she would get on when she moved in with her. She was so confused that she did not realise she was in hospital. As the brother heard this, he has kept working on it. The car was not mentioned in the will and he tried to sell it the next day. The sister wouldn't allow it because she thought it might be assessed for tax reasons. The executor, who was a solicitor, said she was responsible for the car and so signed the car to the daughter who was the sole beneficiary. The sister spoke to her brother about this before it happened and decided to let him have it and asked him what he wanted to do, as the solicitor was going to sign the car over to her. He said he had two cars already and he was no longer interested in it. She would have to get on with it. She now knows that he wasn't interested because he was planning to contest the will and hopefully get a lot more. When the case was over, he made threatening phone calls to her, saying he wanted the car sold and the proceeds for it, but it had been signed over to her and a new log book issued in her name. A friend of hers pointed out that he wanted the money for it in order to pay his legal bill. She isn't in good health and he put her through hell, now he is threatening her with legal action. She is so anxious and worried. Does he have any grounds? If she gets a solicitor's letter from him, what should she do? She cannot really afford to get into another legal case.

[PallasAthena]

Does he have any grounds? If she gets a solicitor's letter from him, what should she do? She cannot really afford to get into another legal case.

Already answered. No he does not have any grounds. The Will left everything to your friend. She was the sole beneficiary of her mother's estate. There was no need for the car to be specifically mentioned in the Will. If it was her mother's property then it was part of her Estate and ownership passed to your friend. Deathbed discussions do not change what the Will said.

The fact that at the time your friend offered to gift it to him is irrelevant. He refused the gift. He can't come back three years later saying in effect he's changed his mind and now wants the equivalent in cash.

No-one can stop the brother starting legal action if he chooses to because in law anyone can start a court claim even if it is entirely unjustified and without any legal merit. But such claims won't get very far. Likewise anyone can pay a solicitor to write letters threatening to start legal action. If either of those things happens come back here for advice.

[greyfur]

Thanks Pallasathena for answering and continuing this thread. My friend asked a police officer for advice and they said the brother couldn't do anything, but she could contact the solicitor who was the executor of the will for advice, but of course this would presumably give my friend a bill, which she is trying to avoid. We will wait further.