No way my father would have left her that! Son in £600,000 battle with stepmother

Row: John Payne Jnr, with mother Vera Baxter

A son locked in a six-year legal feud with his stepmother claims there is “no way” his late father would have cut his children out of his £600,000 fortune.

John Payne’s father, a postal worker also called John Payne, left his first wife in 1997 at the age of 59 to marry Kim Payne, who was in her mid-twenties.

Mr Payne Snr died in 2012, aged 74. His widow has since been at loggerheads with the children from his first marriage over the fate of the estate, including his share of the £450,000 family home in Plaistow. She insists that he made a will 14 months after they married, leaving everything to her.

Mr Payne Jnr, 57, has challenged this, saying there was “no way” his father would have let the property pass out of the family.

He said that his mother, Mr Payne’s first wife Vera Baxter, is now almost 80 and still waiting for the will dispute to be resolved, including the fate of her home. Mrs Payne has a will dated May 1998 leaving her the three-quarters stake in the house and a share portfolio worth an estimated £250,000.

John Payne Jnr says his father would not have left his share of the family home in Plaistow to second wife Kim Payne, pictured

Mr Payne Jnr, however, relies on a April 2012 document, which gives £15,000 to Mrs Payne, £15,000 to Mr Payne Snr’s grandson and the rest to him.

Last February a judge ruled that neither will was valid, as there was no signed copy of the 1998 document and the 2012 version was “not witnessed correctly”.

Mrs Payne has asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider the decision, arguing she had new evidence to present. She told the court that the battle with her late husband’s first family has left her “a broken woman”.

Mrs Payne says her evidence includes a witness to the 1998 will who will back her claim that it reflects Mr Payne Snr’s true dying wishes. But Mr Payne Jnr told judges: “There’s something not truthful about it.”

After yesterday’s hearing, he said: “My family are not from a wealthy background. It has taken four generations of hard-working ancestors saving until there was enough money spare for my late father to put a deposit on a house.

“There is no way my late father would not have passed it on to his family.”

The judges reserved their decision to a later date. If neither will is deemed valid, the estate will be split between Mr Payne’s next of kin.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT