A Will and a Secret Daughter

In past posts, we have written about how a Will may be challenged following the death of the Testator. For any claim to have a chance of success, there must be grounds to do so, and even when there are, they must then be established in court.

The High Court recently heard a case which considered a claim by a daughter in relation to her late father’s estate. This case, however, was unusual, in that the rest of the family had no knowledge of the daughter until after the death of the father.

He, the father, left his entire estate (which we shall come on to later) to his wife. They had been married for 40 years and had five children.  The father had had a secret daughter, who was born following an affair when he was 19 years old. None of his other family knew that she existed.

The secret daughter brought a claim against her father’s estate, claiming that she intended to move to the United Kingdom (she was an Australian citizen) and that when her father visited her, he had given her work.

It emerged through the administration of the estate that there were fewer assets than had been thought originally, and the wife sold the matrimonial home to downsize. After that had taken place, the amount left for her was insignificant, and in short, all the father’s estate had been used up in paying funeral costs and other expenses.

The Court decided that no obligation was owed by the deceased’s wife to the unknown daughter, whom she knew nothing about, and it was not unreasonable to have excluded her from the will in the first place, where the wife had been provided for.