An elderly man cut them out by giving his $770,000 fortune to a non-family member. Ronald Butcher, who died at age 75, bequeathed his money to Daniel Sharp, who free-of-charge cleaned his gutters. The London Evening Standard said that Butcher revised his will two months before he passed away, but his family disputed that it was his “genuine last request.”
After Butcher’s cousin Joyce Gilkerson, Evelyn Hutchins, and Peter Rogers, the kids of a close friend who affectionately referred to Butcher as “Uncle Ron,” asked Judge Lesley Anderson QC to declare the will invalid and substitute a new testament naming them as beneficiaries, the judge granted their request.
The three relatives were equal will beneficiaries prior to the change. Sharp refuted any involvement and expressed surprise at being mentioned in the will. Before Butcher’s passing, the two were friends for six years.
“Mr. Sharp became a buddy for Mr. Butcher, who was lonely. Mr. Butcher understood the consequences of the 2013 will, according to Sharp’s attorney. He liked Mr. Sharp’s son, and they both liked DIY. This explains his motivation for drafting the 2013 will.
Hutchins’ attorney Araba Taylor did not contest Butcher’s capacity to make the revision to the will, but she advised the judge that the “strange” change should “excite suspicion.”
Butcher passed away in his Enfield, England, home, and his body was discovered two months later. Hutchins refuted Sharp’s attorney’s assertion that Butcher and she “slowly lost contact,” saying that she and her brother saw him more frequently before her mother passed away.
In court, she stated that “one of us would go and see him every break we had.” “I called and attempted to drop by around March.” Butcher was thanked by Sharp in court.
He gave me a tenner or twenty pounds when I first cleaned out his gutter, but I declined, he told the judge. “Doing nothing takes a few seconds. That amazed me to get that. The transformative. You receive nothing from anyone.