A year to the day after Sydney businessman Andrew Findlay’s body was found washed up on rocks below The Gap at Watsons Bay after going missing in a freak accident during a fishing expedition, a Supreme Court judge has ruled his multimillion-dollar estate will be inherited by his three children and not their mother.
The timing of Justice Kelly Rees’ judgment was not lost on the still-grieving extended Findlay family last Friday and they declined to comment on the proceedings brought by Findlay’s former de facto, Elizabeth Kemp.
Andrew Findlay.
Kemp challenged the validity of an unsigned 2019 will Findlay made following the end of their relationship and before they finalised a multimillion-dollar property settlement in which both agreed to forgo any future claims on each other’s estates.
Kemp, who was previously married to cricketer Brett Lee, asked the court to instead uphold a 2015 will in which Findlay left his entire estate to her.
Elizabeth Kemp leaves the Supreme Court of NSW in July.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Kemp took possession of Findlay’s Mercedes-Benz AMG and moved into the couple’s former home, a $15 million-plus Centennial Park trophy home, Camelot, with their children and changed the locks shortly after Findlay’s death. She has remained silent after the verdict, which ordered her to pay the Findlay family’s legal costs. She has 28 days to appeal.
The three-day hearing in July provided an insight into Findlay’s private life and the breakdown of his relationship, with his mystery lover Naomi Roth, members of Findlay’s family and Kemp herself all taking the witness stand.
Trophy home: Camelot in Centennial Park.
There was “a very good reason” for Findlay to make a new will when he did, said Rees, who concluded he was an “experienced businessman” who had accumulated significant wealth. While she found Kemp to be a “polite” witness, she doubted aspects of her testimony, including her knowledge of Findlay’s 2019 will and the timing of their relationship breakdown.
“He had become appraised, in no uncertain terms, that his relationship with Ms Kemp was over ... Mr Findlay took the prudent step of changing his will and leaving his estate to his children. Such a step might be thought unremarkable in the circumstances. Ms Kemp did likewise.
“But there was no evidence that Mr Findlay knew that a will had to be executed to be valid. Nor did he consider that non-execution of the 2019 document was fatal to its validity.
“I conclude that Mr Findlay thought that the 2019 document would ‘do the job’ even if it had not been signed. Whilst Mr Findlay was not aware of the legal niceties of making a valid will, as a businessperson, he proceeded to make the necessary changes proficiently and promptly informed key stakeholders of what he had done,” Rees said.
According to a survey of 2000 adults conducted in 2023 for estate planning service Safewill almost half of Australian adults do not have a will. The results indicated one in four Australian parents do not have a will as well as a third of adults with assets valued at $750,000 or more.
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