Daughter wins four-year legal battle to inherit parents’ estate

Posted 01/12/2010

A university lecturer is celebrating after winning a four-year legal battle to reclaim what she insisted was her rightful inheritance.

Dr Christine Gill, 58, found that when both of her parents passed away, a joint Will decreed that their 287-acre farm would be left to the RSPCA.

She contested the document, claiming that she had been repeatedly told that she would be entitled to the £2.34 million estate.

Dr Gill successfully argued at a prior court hearing that her mother had been coerced into signing the Will by her husband, upon whom she was dependent due to panic attacks and agoraphobia.

However, the RSPCA appealed against the decision.

This week, the Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger, Lord Justice Lloyd and Lord Justice Jackson dismissed the charity’s appeal and agreed that Dr Gill should be entitled to the farm as well as her mother’s £200,000 savings.

“We can now settle back into our lives on the family farm that I love and which I have dedicated many years to maintaining,” she commented.