Huge court bill for daughter sued by little sister over £250 snub in dad’s will

Laxmikant Patel died in October 2021 and handed his £600,000 house to oldest daughter Anju in his last will

A daughter who was sued after her "bad tempered" little sister was left just £250 in their dad's will has been left facing a £400,000-plus bill after losing in court.

Anju Patel has gone from inheriting almost all her dad Laxmikant Patel's £600,000 fortune under his will to being left with nothing after being crushed in court by little sister Bhavenetta Stewart-Brown.

Laxmikant, who died aged 85 in October 2021, had handed his £600,000 house to oldest daughter Anju in his last will - while leaving his younger daughter, Bhavenetta Stewart-Brown, 52, and his son, Piyush Patel, 62, with just £250 each.

Anju, 58, claimed her dad’s drastic decision to virtually disinherit two of his children could be explained by a growing mistrust he had developed towards them, because “they were only after his property”.

But the August 2021 will ended up under attack in London’s High Court, with Bhavenetta claiming a “cloud of suspicion” hung over the way it was drawn up and executed - having been made just two months before the old man’s death, when he was terminally ill, frail and in a hospital subject to Covid restrictions.

Anju Patel outside court (Champion News)

Deputy Master Jason Raeburn ruled in favour of Bhavenetta last December, upholding a 2019 will splitting the £600,000 estate roughly three ways between the siblings, whilst declaring the circumstances of the 2021 will “highly suspicious”.

Now he has made an order that as well as losing almost two-thirds of her inheritance, Anju is also responsible for paying her sister's court costs of the fight, leaving her facing a bill which lawyers said could be over £400,000, as well as her own undisclosed legal costs.

Vijaykant Patel, the executor of the 2021 will, was also made jointly and severally liable for paying Bhavenetta's costs.

But the decision means that the approximately £250,000 which Anju is entitled to under the upheld 2019 testament will be completely wiped out her costs of the case.

The court during the trial heard that Laxmikant's will of 2019 had left £50,000 to Anju, with the rest of the estate split in shares of 33 percent to each of the children and one percent to a charitable trust administered by Anju.

But the document made in 2021 left virtually everything to Anju, with her two siblings being handed just £250 each.

At trial, Anju explained the move, telling the judge Laxmikant had complained that Bhavenetta and Piyush had failed to show him “true affection” and, when asked to explain why he had left them anything at all, replied: “they have failed in their sense of duty, but as a father I have not forgotten them”.

He was also said to have labelled his son, Piyush, a “hugely controlling” figure and complained of Bhavenetta’s “bad temper” and of her taking “massive advantage” of her elderly dad.

Bhavenetta Stewart-Brown outside court (Champion News)

The court heard Laxmikant was a gentle and hard-working man who had carved out a new life for his family after migrating from Uganda in the early 1970s, working shifts at the Ford motor plant in Dagenham while his wife, Shardaben, ran a newsagent’s.

A devoutly religious man, Laxmikant attended the Swaminarayan temple in Neasden, north London, every day and he and his wife donated around £180,000 to the temple throughout their lives.

By the time of his death in 2021, his main asset was his £600,000 home in Cambridge Road, Harrow.

That house was left entirely to Anju under his last will, a decision which Bhavenetta’s barrister, Tim Sherwin, described as "most odd".

He claimed that Anju - a Hare Krishna follower - had done what she could to distance her dad from his accustomed Swaminarayan faith, telling the judge: “The evidence...shows a clear pattern of isolation and control over the deceased on the part of Anju and (her husband) which became especially stark when he was in the hospital at the end of his life – when, of course, the purported 2021 will was made.”

Bhavenetta’s legal team claimed Laxmikant’s apparent change of heart made no sense in light of his clear wish to split his estate predominantly equally in his previous 2019 and 2018 wills.

Anju's barrister, James Kane, argued that by October 2019 Laxmikant had formed a “sharply negative” view of both Piyush and Bhavenetta, citing his alleged comments to the will writer in 2019 that Bhavenetta “has taken massive advantage of her father” - while Anju remained “the only light in his life”.

“Apparently, she has a bad temper,” the will writer said of Bhavenetta.

Anju claimed her dad gave instructions for the will to Vijaykant Patel - who she knew from the Hare Krishna temple and who claimed to also be a friend of her dad - and that Vijaykant came to visit his bed at London’s Northwick Hospital where Laxmikant asked him to help prepare the will document.

Patel House (Supplied by Champion News)

Vijaykant, the executor of the 2021 will, claimed to have taken notes at the hospital meeting, with Laxmikant expressing “revulsion” towards Bhavenetta and Piyush before stating that the pair were “only after his property” and “everything goes to Anju”.

Finding that the 2021 hospital bed will had not been properly witnessed, the judge explained: “Both witnesses said they used the same pen as the deceased, but it’s plain from the face of the will that it wasn’t signed by all the participating parties using the same pen.

“I am not therefore satisfied that a signature was made by (Laxmikant) in the presence of all the witnesses at the same time, so there was no due execution of the will."

The judge also found that there was no compelling evidence that Laxmikant “knew and approved” of the 2021 will.

“The particular circumstances of the instructions and execution of the 2021 will are suspicious - highly suspicious,” he commented.

The 2021 document was a drastic change from previous even-handed wills drawn up by Laxmikant, said the judge, noting: “a particular feature was that it effectively disinherited two of his three children.

“I have arrived at the clear conclusion that those propounding the 2021 will have not discharged the burden of establishing that he knew and approved its contents," he added, before going on to strike out the 2021 will and reinstate Laxmikant’s previous 2019 will, leaving his three children sharing his fortune on roughly equal terms.

This week, at a further hearing he ordered that Anju and Vijaykant are each jointly liable to pay Bhavenetta's costs of fighting the case, which Mr Sherwin said amounted to £380,000, with VAT to be added, taking the total bill to over £450,000 - almost twice what Anju was set to receive under the 2019 will.

She will also have to pay her own lawyers, but no figures for her own bill emerged during the hearing.

Mr Kane also asked the judge for permission to appeal against his ruling on Anju's behalf, but he was refused.

The judge also ordered an up-front payment on account of costs to be made of around £180,000 plus VAT.