Ex-British Airways pilot fends off his poorer sisters in war over parents’ will

A former British Airways pilot has defeated his two poorer sisters in a court battle over shares of their parents’ £1.5 million fortune.

Retired captain Chris Burgess, 65, was handed £300,000 after the death of his parents, while his sisters, Jennifer Penny, 69, and Catherine Kennard, 55, were set to inherit £600,000 each.

Their father, former judge Jim Burgess, had decided that his son did not need the money as much as his daughters, thanks to his well-paid career in aviation.

However, Mr Burgess went to the High Court to argue that his mother’s will, written in 2013 after the death of his father, said the money should be split equally.

Judge Catherine Newman QC has now agreed, ruling that each sibling should receive £500,000 as that was the final wishes of their mother Freda Burgess.

“It was her own wish to leave her property equally to her three children,” she said.

The court heard Jim Burgess altered his will in 2012 to leave his son, from East Molesey, Surrey, a 20 per cent share of the estate, while leaving 40 per cent to each of his daughters.

He told his pilot son about the change at a football match, explaining that “Cathy and Jennie were not as secure financially as Chris”, said the judge.

But after her husband’s death in 2012 and when she suffered a bad fall the following year, Mrs Burgess signed a new will to reverse her husband’s wishes and shredded the old document.

The judge said Mr Burgess was a “loving son” who, with his wife Cleide, had cared for his mother in her last days before her death at the age of 90 in 2016.

Mrs Penny and Mrs Kennard argued the new will had not been properly witnessed, and the judge agreed that it was not valid as one of its witnesses did not see Mrs Burgess sign it.

But the judge said the terms of the will should stand as it reflected their mother’s wishes, especially as she had shredded the previous version that split the estate unequally.

“Although physically frail at this time and temporarily less robust psychologically than before her fall, she was well able to make up her own mind about what she wanted,” the judge said.

She added: “My assessment of Chris is that he would not draw up a will which was not in accordance with his mother’s expressed wishes and that he did not do so.”