Animal charities win court ruling against woman left out of mother's will
Three animal charities have won a challenge at the UK's highest court over a six-figure award to a woman who was left out of her estranged mother's will.
Supreme Court justices overturned a Court of Appeal decision which awarded mother-of-five Heather Ilott more than £160,000.
They ruled on Wednesday that an order made by a district judge in 2007 that the sum should be £50,000 should be "restored".
The ruling by the Supreme Court marked the end of a lengthy legal fight which began after Mrs Ilott's mother Melita Jackson left the majority of her £486,000 estate to charities.
Mrs Ilott, from Great Munden, Hertfordshire, who has no pension and lived on state benefits, went to court and was originally awarded £50,000 from the estate, but Court of Appeal judges more than tripled the sum in 2015.
The Blue Cross, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals argued that the appeal judges ''fell into error'' when deciding to increase the maintenance payout, which included £143,000 for Mrs Ilott to buy her housing association home.
A panel of seven Supreme Court justices, headed by president Lord Neuberger, were urged at a hearing last year to overturn the Court of Appeal ruling and either make an ''appropriate'' order for Mrs Ilott's ''provision'', or restore the district judge's order.
The court said in announcing the decision: "The order of the Court of Appeal should be set aside and the order of the district judge restored.
"This court was told that this appeal was brought by the charities largely on principle because of the possible impact of the decision below (by the Court of Appeal) on other cases, and that some arrangement has been arrived at between these parties in the event that the appeal succeeded."
Only child Mrs Ilott was rejected by her mother at the age of 17 after she left home without her knowledge or agreement in 1978 to live with her boyfriend, Nicholas Ilott, whom she later married.
Attempts at reconciliation failed and when 70-year-old Mrs Jackson died in 2004 her will made no provision for her daughter.
Mrs Ilott, who is in her 50s, made an application under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 for ''reasonable financial provision'' from her mother's estate.
The Act confers the right on a child of a deceased parent to apply for an order if a will does not make reasonable provision for their maintenance.
It is the first time an appeal under the 1975 Act has reached the Supreme Court.
The charities said their action was to ''affirm the importance of testamentary freedom and secure crucial guidance for the future''. Lawyers for Mrs Ilott had opposed their challenge.
The Court of Appeal's award comprised the £143,000 to enable Mrs Ilott to purchase her home, the reasonable costs of the purchase, and payments up to a maximum of £20,000 structured in a way that would allow her to preserve her state benefits.
