Court Upholds Landlord Will Leaving $21M to Tenant
A wealthy real estate investor’s will leaving $21 million to the owners of a Chinese restaurant that was a tenant in one of her buildings was upheld today by a British court.
Although five nieces and nephews of Golda Bechal challenged her 1994 will and questioned her mental state, the High Court accepted the evidence of restaurant owners Kim Sing Man and his wife, Bee Lian Man, that they had become like family to her, reports the Guardian, a U.K. newspaper. (According to an Associated Press article, the 10 million pounds bequeathed by Bechal to the couple amounts to about $21 million.)
During several decades that the restaurant was a tenant of Bechal and her late husband, a friendship blossomed between the two families. They celebrated Christmas together and went on shared foreign vacations, according to testimony in the case. Sad and lonely after the death of her husband and 28-year-old son, Bechal became almost part of their family, the restaurateurs said, and the judge, Sir Donald Rattee, accepted this evidence.
Despite her failing memory, the elderly landlord knew what she was doing when she left almost her entire fortune to the couple, Rattee held. “In my judgment, on the balance of probabilities, Mrs. Bechal had testamentary capacity. The will executed by Mrs. Bechal in August 1994 was valid.”
She died in 2004 at the age of 88.
