An elderly guy handed his $770,000 wealth to a non-family member, shutting them out. After dying at 75, Ronald Butcher left his money to Daniel Sharp, who cleaned his gutters for free. Butcher changed his will two months before his death, but his family denied it was his “true last wish,” the London Evening Standard said.
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After Butcher’s cousin Joyce Gilkerson, Evelyn Hutchins, and Peter Rogers, the children of a close friend who called Butcher “Uncle Ron,” requested that Judge Lesley Anderson QC invalidate the will and replace it with one that names them as beneficiaries.
Before the adjustment, the three relatives were equal will beneficiaries. Sharp was astonished to be included in the will and denied any involvement. The two were pals for six years until Butcher’s death.
“Mr Butcher was lonely and found a friend in Mr Sharp. Sharp’s lawyer said Mr. Butcher recognized the 2013 will’s implications. “They liked DIY, and he liked Mr. Sharp’s son. This explains why he wanted to make the 2013 will.”
Araba Taylor, Hutchins’ lawyer, didn’t dispute that Butcher was of sound mind when he amended the will, but she told the judge that the “odd” modification should “excite suspicion.”
Two months after Butcher died in his Enfield, England, home, his body was located. Hutchins denied Sharp’s lawyer’s claim that she “slowly lost contact” with Butcher, but she and her brother saw him more before her mother died.
She testified in court, “One or other of us would go and see him every break we had.” “I tried to pop in around March and called.” Sharp thanked Butcher in court.
“When I first cleaned out his gutter, he offered me a tenner or 20 quid, but I refused,” he told the judge. “It took seconds to do nothing. I was surprised to receive that. The life-changing. Nobody gives you nothing.”