Famous painter John Olsen's stepdaughter stayed ‘quiet’ about $2.2m gift from dying mum, court hears
A court is asking why the stepdaughter of famous painter John Olsen kept quiet after her dying mother gifted her $2.2m at a bank in Bowral.
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The state’s top judges are trying to figure out why the stepdaughter of renowned Australian artist John Olsen “kept quiet” when her dying mother handed her $2.2 million which partly belonged to the famous painter.
The artist’s fourth wife, Katharine Howard-Olsen, gave her daughter Karen Mentink a gift of $2.2m shortly before dying of brain cancer in December 2016.
Mr Olsen took objection, launching legal action to claw back the money, saying it was jointly his and his late wife’s.
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NSW Supreme Court Justice John Sackar, last year, found Ms Mentink was "unconscionable" in either influencing or doing nothing to stop her addled mother from gifting her the money without seeking independent legal or accounting advice.
“I am persuaded that the defendant initiated her mother’s decision to make changes to her will and likewise must have been involved in her mother’s decision to make a gift as opposed to a bequest of the $2.2 million,” he said.
Mrs Mentink launched an appeal and a counter lawsuit which sent the family’s long-running legal saga back before the courts and into the eyes of the public.
“There’s no evidence to support the finding (Mrs Mentink) initiated her mother’s decision to make changes to her will,” her barrister Raoul Wilson SC said at an appeal hearing on Monday.
He said Mrs Howard-Olsen wanted to “cover both bases” by leaving her daughter a substantial windfall in her estate while also giving her the $2.2m while she was alive.
The court heard Mrs Mentink and her mother travelled to Bowral’s Commonwealth Bank where Mrs Howard-Olsen withdrew the money and gave it to her daughter.
Mrs Mentink inherited more than $5 million all told - about $3 million from the will and the contested $2.2 million, the court heard.
But the appeal court judges wanted to know why Mrs Mentink "kept the thing quiet" after the fortune landed in her bank account.
“In the context in which this transaction took place one might expect that, if it had seen the light of day at the time it occurred, it would immediately have been the subject of inquiry as to whether those moneys were, in whole, proceeds of her mother’s estate,” one justice asked.
“Your client kept the thing quiet.”
Mr Wilson said denying someone legal advice could be unconscionable but there was no evidence his client did that to her mother.
“It’s not as though there were no solicitors involved,” he said, saying a lawyer had been told about the $2.2m going in the will or being gifted before it happened.
“It’s not as though all this happened in the backyard and there was a trip to the bank.”
Mr Olsen’s lawyers said Mrs Mentink denied she was involved in discussions with the people amending her mother’s will despite being her daughter and primary carer.
“There was a pattern of (Mrs Mentink) prevailing on her mother to provide things for her,” the painter’s barrister Mark McCulloch SC said.
He reiterated the original decision against Mrs Mentink that the transfer of funds at Bowral was unconscionable and should be reversed.
The judges will deliver their decision on the appeal at a later date.