Cheyne Horan: Surfing legend takes on barrister over family’s wills
He was one of the Aussies who turned surfing into a sport — but earned almost nothing in the process. Now former world champ Cheyne Horan is set to face off against a trailblazing female barrister over who owns a $2 million property.
NSW
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An Australian surfing champion is set to face off against a trailblazing female barrister in a courtroom showdown over who owns a $2 million property.
In one corner is Cheyne Horan, a surfing world championship runner-up and member of the legendary “Bronzed Aussies” team of the 1970s, which inspired the sport to turn professional and paved the way for it to become a multibillion-dollar industry — but who earned almost nothing themselves.
On the other side is the executer of a will, Sydney lawyer Janet Coombs, a member of the Order of Australia who forged a path for future generations of females in the legal profession after being admitted as a barrister in 1959.
The case is due in the NSW Supreme Court this week in a bitter dispute over the respective wills left by Horan’s late grandmother and uncle.
At the heart of the battle is a terrace house in the inner west suburb of Forest Lodge worth almost $2 million, which was owned by the famous surfer’s grandparents, Albert and Alice Horan.
Horan and his brother Stephen claim in court documents their grandmother wrote in her 1974 will that it was her wish that the property would stay in the family.
This would mean the Horan brothers would inherit the property because they are now her last surviving blood relatives.
However, just two months before their grandmother’s death in 1980, two new wills were allegedly drawn up.
Those wills left the property to the grandmother’s other son — the Horan brothers’ uncle — John Albert Horan.
John Horan died in November 2016. His will, which was drawn up in 1988, left the property to a religious charity he named as “Good Sisters”. This charity appears to no longer exist and may have been absorbed into another charitable organisation or renamed.
Ms Coombs was named as the executor and trustee of John Horan’s will.
And, because John Horan was the executor of the grandmother’s two wills in 1980, Ms Coombs then also left as the trustee of all three wills along with another lawyer, David John Thomas.
Property records show Ms Coombs and Mr Thomas as the current owner of the Bridge Rd terrace house.
The Horn brothers have now taken legal action to have the three wills declared invalid and are seeking a court order that will allow them to keep the property in the family.
They claim the wills were drawn up at a time when their grandmother and uncle were respectively incapacitated with “illness” and a “brain injury” plus other debilitating issues, according to documents lodged in support of a caveat on the property.
When contacted, Mr Horan declined to comment.
Ms Coombs also declined to comment.
However, her solicitor Justine Dormer said: “My client has nothing to gain from the case and is simply performing her role as the executor of the estate.”
Ms Dormer confirmed the case related to the Horan brothers challenging the validity of the wills.
Mr Thomas is understood to be unwell and could not be reached.
However, Ms Coombs is set to fight the Horan’s claim.
Court-ordered mediation between the parties has not been successful.
The Horans’ barrister Frank Santisi said the matter is now listed for Tuesday, where a hearing date is expected to be set down.
According to property records, the Horan brothers have placed a caveat on the now- dilapidated property to prevent it from being sold without their permission.
Documents lodged in support of the caveat said Alice Horan was “an alcoholic” who was “in hospital dying of liver cancer and heavily medicated” when her 1980 will was drawn up.
The document said she “lacked testamentary capacity and otherwise was under duress at the hands of … John Albert Horan”.
Despite Alice Horan dying in 1980, the documents said John Albert Horan did not apply for probate on the estate until 1992.
Similarly, the caveat documents argued John Horan was incapable of drafting his 1988 will because he had “a brain injury, was violent, suffered a mental condition (and) was incapable of looking after himself or his affairs”.
Strangely, the property was left in Alice Horan’s name until 2017 — almost a year after John’s death, the documents said.
However, other property records said the house was “passed” to John Horan in 1992.
According to those property records, probate was granted to Ms Coombs and Mr Thomas in May 2017 and they are currently listed as the owners of the property.