Judge back sisters in £3m legacy row

A WEALTHY Yorkshirewoman contemplated cutting her son out of her multi-million pound estate because of a family rift, London’s High Court heard yesterday.

The revelations came as Mr Justice Newey refused John Kershaw’s bid to have his sisters, Julia Micklethwaite and Jennifer Barlow, from Sheffield, removed as executors of their mother’s estate.

Adrienne Kershaw’s estate has been valued for probate at 2.9m, but Mr Kershaw insists that the true value is actually much higher.

At the High Court, barrister Andrew Child, for Mr Kershaw, told the judge that how much money Mr Kershaw gets depends on the probate value of the estate – and a lower valuation will benefit his sisters.

Mr Child argued that Mrs Barlow and Mrs Micklethwaite should be removed as executors because they had a “clear conflict of interest” and had failed to keep their brother informed of developments in the administration.

But Mr Justice Newey yesterday dismissed the application, saying there was “no basis” for Mrs Barlow and Mrs Micklethwaite to be removed as executors.

He added that he had borne in mind the fact that Mrs Kershaw had “devoted considerable thought” to who should look after her affairs when she died.

The day before she made her will, said the judge, she told a solicitor that she felt a “bit cruel” not naming Mr Kershaw as an executor, but added: “I know jolly well he would rule the roost and that’s just not right.”

Mr Justice Newey went on to say that Mrs Kershaw had said that “some people” in her position would write their son out of their will altogether.

Mrs Kershaw commented, said the judge: “I can screw his neck round, but he is still my son”, and she added that the will was “based on blood and not in respect of his conduct”.

“She wanted them all to be happy, like the old days,” the judge added.

Mr Kershaw argued that his mother’s farm, High Greave, in Dore, Sheffield, could go under the hammer for as much as 3m, while he says a block of flats is also worth up to 3m.

They have been valued for less, and Mr Justice Newey said there was no reason to find fault with the lower valuations as they were made by professionals.

Mrs Kershaw, who was married to solicitor Frank Kershaw, the founder of Sheffield-based law firm, Kershaw Tudor, also owned a string of other properties and land, including some in Birchover, Derbyshire. She died on July 22, 2008.

Mr Kershaw, who lives in France, wanted his sisters, as well as his late mother’s accountant, removed as executors of the estate, and replaced by an independent professional.

Under Mrs Kershaw’s will, Mr Kershaw will receive two fifths of her fortune, in cash, while former magistrate Mrs Barlow, of Old Hay Lane, Dore, will get one fifth and Mrs Micklethwaite will get two fifths, both in property – hence why the valuation of the estate was so crucial to all concerned.

Mr Child said that hostility between Mr Kershaw and, in particular, Mrs Micklethwaite, of Whitelow Farm, Whitelow Lane, Dore, should lead to a change of executors.

But Mr Justice Newey said that bad feeling between an executor of a will and someone who would benefit from it was no reason for a removal.

The judge said: “I have not been persuaded that there is any good reason for anyone to be removed as an executor.

“The matters which Mr Kershaw relies on don’t individually, or together, provide any real basis for supposing that, if the executors remain, the estate will not be administered properly.”