Will disputed after millionairess leaves fortune to charity and carers
By the time she died in 2011 at age 104, the daughter of America’s second-richest man, Huguette Clark had lived as a recluse for more than half a century, spending her last 20 years confined to a New York hospital room.
Controversy is now surfacing over her Will in which she left her $300m fortune to the few people who had looked after her in the last years of her life, rather than to her remaining relatives.
Twenty distant family members, many of whom Ms Clark had never met, are challenging the Will in court, claiming that Ms Clark was coerced into writing it by her beneficiaries. The trial will revolve around two Wills, reportedly written six weeks apart in 2005.
In the first, Ms Clark left her fortune to her family. However, the second gives 75 per cent to charity with the rest divided between her goddaughter and a handful of medical and business employees. “I intentionally make no provision in this, my last will testament, for any members of my family, having had minimal contacts with them over the years,” the document reads.
Ms Clark was born in Paris in 1906 to the industrialist and US Senator William Clark and his second wife. The relatives challenging her Will are descendants of Clark and his first wife.
In 1991 Ms Clark admitted herself to New York’s Beth Israel hospital with facial skin cancer. Following surgery, she refused to be discharged and stayed there under a pseudonym, paying for private care for the rest of her life. A nurse, Hadassah Peri, who was assigned to look after her at random became her closest companion, and spent 12 hours a day with her for the next 20 years. In return, Ms Clark gave Ms Peri and her family $31m in gifts during her lifetime, and left her around $30m in her Will.
If you’d like information on making or challenging a Will, please contact Alistair Dobson at Lawson-West on 01858 445 480.
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