A woman has secured £1.7m ($2.3m, €1.9m) for her late mother’s estate to be paid by her brother after a “rare” executor dispute was refused permission to appeal, according Irwin Mitchell, the law firm representing her.
The decision is a success for Kirsty Cadogan, who has been fighting the case since 2011.
The issue was between the claimant and her brother, Kevin Cadogan. Both were executors of their mother’s £4.9m estate and both issued claims against one another to “account on a footing of ‘wilful default’”.
A June 2019 high court judgment found in favour of Kirsty Cadogan, and while Kevin Cadogan appealed the decision, the court of appeal has now rejected any further requests.
Details
Veronica Cadogan died in September 2011 and two of her five children, Kirsty Cadogan and Kevin Cadogan, became administrators of her estate.
Her Will said the estate, involving 14 UK and international properties thought to be worth around £2.4m, should be shared among her five children equally.
Kirsty Cadogan instructed lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to handle her case as she first brought a claim in court against her brother and fellow administrator Kevin Cadogan in 2016 for an “account of his dealings with the estate on the footing of wilful default”.
She stated that the family business which was being run by Kevin Cadogan had used five of the estate properties without paying occupation rent or accounting for the profits that he made, as well as having failed to account for rental monies from other properties.
Kirsty Cadogan appointed a professional administrator in their place.
The court had to decide whether the personal representatives of the estate should be ordered to account ’in common form’, which means that they only need to pay back any money they kept for themselves less any expenditure occurred – or if they should account on a footing of wilful default, meaning they should pay back the money the estate should have received.
In the end, the court ordered Kevin Cadogan to pay back the estate £1.7m.
‘Cautionary tale’
Richard Smaller, a solicitor in the Will, trust and estate disputes team at Irwin Mitchell who represented Kirsty Cadogan, said: “It’s a relief to our client that the court of appeal has rejected any further appeal of the case, having been through enough emotional turmoil over the last nine years.
“Veronica Cadogan had a complex and high-value estate, which unfortunately means that even with the best of intentions mistakes can be made if the personal representative is inexperienced, or even wilfully negligent as was the case here.
“The case is a cautionary tale for those writing a Will – sometimes it’s definitely worth considering whether a professional executor or trustee is a better appointment if there are difficult aspects of the estate, such as overseas business interests or multiple properties.
“My client can finally begin to move on now that this unhappy period of her life has reached a conclusion, and the court order from 2019 can now be followed.”
