Family Fighting Over Woman’s £800,000 Will Claim She Hated Sister’s ‘messy Life’
A family is fighting over the will of Carry Keats who died aged 92 in February 2022 but, weeks earlier, partially ripped up her will as she said on her deathbed she “hated” her sister’s messy life
Carry Keats was unimpressed by the life her sister led (Image: Champion News)
A family fighting over a relative’s £800,000 will after she tore it up on her deathbed claim she would have never wanted her sister to get the money because she hated her sister’s “messy life”.
Carry Keats physically ripped three-quarters of the way through the pages of her will in the hospital before she died. Under a Victorian law passed in 1837 any person can legally revoke a will they have made by ripping it up, so long as the act is carried out within certain guidelines.
If Carry is found to have legally destroyed the document and died without a valid will, her younger sister Josephine Oakley will inherit everything she owned. London’s High Court heard Carry died, aged 92, on February 15, 2022, less than three weeks after tearing up her last will as she lay dying in hospital in Salisbury.
David Crew outside London’s High Court. ( Image:
Champion News) Josephine Oakley outside London’s High Court ( Image:
Champion News) The cousins, headed by David Crew, the son of Carry and Josephine’s cousin Lucy Whitehorn, say the will should stand, as Carry was only strong enough to tear it three-quarters of the way through, with the rest being ripped at her request by her solicitor.
Mr Crew said the sister, also known as Jo, had a “messy life”. He told the MailOnline: “They hadn’t got on for many years, going back to when they were both young. Jo had a messy life. Her first husband divorced her over her infidelity.
“Carry was an upstanding country woman with a high moral code. Not only did her first husband leave her for adultery but her second husband divorced her as well for reasons we do not know.”
“Jo had always lived above her means. Carry once phoned me in tears. She was crying her heart out because Jo had been pestering her.”
Josephine – who denies the adultery claims – says her sister knew what she was doing and had decided to cut out her cousins after they proposed putting her in a care home and because it was what the sisters’ dad “would have wanted”.
Carry, who owned and ran a successful caravan site, left behind an £800,000 fortune, mainly tied up in her home and land at Whitehorse, in the Wiltshire village of Nomansland. Eighteen months earlier, she had made a will which split almost everything she owned between five distant cousins of hers, one of whom – David Crew, her cousin once removed – had been close friends with her and her late husband for decades.
Last month it was reported Mr Crew told the judge he was sure Mrs Keats didn’t want her sister to inherit. He said: “Carry was very lucid in what she told me, that her sister was never mentioned in any of her wills.
“Carry didn’t like her sister because of all the various things that had happened in the past. Not just lending money but infidelity in her…marriage. I know what Carry told me.
“I never saw or read any of her previous wills, but she explained to me what her feelings were at this time, and that she would not name her sister in her will because she was unhappy about things that had happened in the past.
“She was disgusted by her sister due to her infidelity. I had to accept what she said. She told me she would never put her sister in her will. She was disgusted by what happened between her and her husband – her husband had come home early and found her in bed with another man.”
Josephine’s barrister confirmed outside court she denies the alleged incident or any infidelity. The judge has now reserved his ruling on the case to be given at a later date.