Hairdresser handed Rs 2 crore in customer's will is told by judge to give the money back
Hairdresser handed Rs 2 crore in customer's will is told by judge to give the money backA hairdresser who inherited ufffd380,000 (Rs 2 crore) from two elderly sisters will have to repay the money after a judge ruled that an earlier will leaving the estate to their family was binding.
Eccentric siblings Ethel Willson and Mabel Cook, described as 'peas in a pod,' drew up a joint will in 1991 leaving their possessions to their family and friends.
Change in willCook died aged 83 in 1995, but in 2006 her younger sister dramatically changed the will, just two months before her own death at the age of 92, leaving all but (Rs 7 lakh) of the estate to their hairdresser Jill Fraser.
Now a High Court judge has ruled that because the sisters had a mutual agreement before Cook died, the original will should be honoured.
The mutual wills drawn up in 1991 carved up the childless sisters' wealth between 15 of their closest family, godchildren and friends, not including Fraser, pictured.
The sisters' family and friends, who would have been left with nothing, mounted a costly legal battle against
Fraser, arguing that the first will should stand.
The sisters set up home together in Stoneleigh, near Epsom, Surrey, in the late 1980s after both lost their husbands in the 1970s.
Wash and dry
For many years Fraser, a former neighbour of Cook, drove weekly to the sisters' home to shampoo and set their hair for free.
The hairdresser claimed she was entitled to the legacy because she was the only person to visit Willson in her dying days in hospital.
But the family accused her of failing to inform them that she had been admitted to hospital.
At the London hearing, Judge Jonathan Gaunt, ruled that the 'mirror wills' the sisters signed in 1991 remained binding even after Cook's death.
It is one of only a small handful of cases in which the "doctrine of mutual wills" has been applied.
The ruling means travelling hairdresser Fraser (72), will now have to pay back what she can in cash and a charge will be put against her home, which she bought in July last year, using some of the legacy, for the balance.
Referring to the sisters' family and friends, many of whom live in Malvern, Worcestershire, who will now inherit the money as "very kind, decent people," the judge said that they have no plans to enforce the charge over Fraser's home while she still lives there.
He added that he was "very pleased" to hear that the 1991 beneficiaries have no intention of trying to claw back the ufffd10,000 (Rs 7 lakh) legacy to Willson's carer, who was particularly good to her.
