The son of an illiterate millionaire who made a £4 million fortune from a scrapyard business has won a legal battle with his sister over their father’s will.
Tom Goodwin, described in court as a “thrifty Yorkshireman”, had a keen business sense despite a “limited ability to read and write”. He began with a scrapyard in Barnsley in 1967 and had amassed £4 million by the time of his death three years ago, aged 83.
Goodwin moved from the scrap trade to farming as his wealth grew. He married twice and had three children but the “wily” millionaire had bitter disputes with all of them over five decades, the court heard. Weeks before he died he had planned to disinherit his son, Gary, by amending his will.
Tom discussed the planned redrafting with solicitors, but his son was not removed and the fortune will be divided up under the terms of a 2017 document, which made Gary his main heir.
At a High Court hearing, the son’s sister Jacqueline Avison and her daughter Nicola Smith argued that the 2017 will was the result of pressure placed on the elderly man by Gary. They argued that a previous will made in 2005 should stand; in that, Gary was to inherit only his father’s treasured Rolls-Royce.
The two women have now dropped their claim midway through a trial and Judge Malcolm Davis-White has ruled that the 2017 document was Tom’s final will, handing his car, one of his farms and the reins of his business to his son. The judge said that claims that the 2017 will was the result of fraud or pressure were groundless because the father “knew his own mind” and was not scared or overawed by anyone.
The court heard that Tom had gone into the scrapyard trade in the 1960s and bought Pear Tree Farm and Santingley Grange Farm near Wakefield in 1997. He had three children, Gary, 56, Jacqueline, 61, and Gillian, 59, and fell into disputes with all by the time he died, when he was a grandfather of ten.
Describing Tom as “wily” and “someone who would make contradictory statements to different people”, the judge said: “He had a tendency to tell people things that they wanted to hear. I am also satisfied that he did not always tell the truth.
“He had a tendency to blame his falling out with members of his family as being down to their greed or the greed of persons connected to them.”
The ruling also pointed out that Gillian, the other daughter, had been set to inherit the house at Pear Tree Farm under another version of her father’s will from 2000, but she was left out of subsequent wills after a dispute.
The judge ordered Jacqueline, Nicola and three grandchildren to bear the costs of the case.
THE TIMES – 23rd September 2021