New twist in Shelmerdine family’s $11million Positano Portsea mansion stoush
A fresh twist in the cashed-up stoush between a prominent Melbourne mother and daughter over their family’s $11m Portsea mansion has emerged, with one heralding a three-page handwritten agreement of the home’s sale as simply “several scraps of paper notes”.
Entertainment
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The mother daughter stoush within a Melbourne establishment family over the listing of an $11 million clifftop estate in Portsea has seen a heralded three-page handwritten agreement of sale described as just “several scraps of paper notes” in a defence filed in the Supreme Court.
Celia Burrell, who with her husband William created the El Questro resort in Western Australia, launched legal action against her mother Janice Shelmerdine, in July claiming the family matriarch had attempted to sell a luxury property, known as Positano, despite promising it to her.
She claimed she and her mother signed a three-page handwritten sale agreement for Positano in January 2018.
In a defence filed on her behalf by Goldhirsch & Shnider, Mrs Shelmerdine described the 2018 Sale Agreement as scraps of paper notes and denied that her daughter held interests in the property.
“On about 12 January 2018 she wrote down on several scraps of paper notes of a discussion relating to Positano which she had with the Plaintiff some of which she signed and/or initialled to signify her agreement in principle to the matters there recorded subject to formal documentation,” Mrs Shelmerdine’s defence said.
“If ...the handwritten 2018 agreement ...is composed of the said scraps of paper or some of them cut and/or pasted together so as to create the three page document..., then she says that the creation of the Handwritten 2018 Agreement in that manner was not authorised by her and she did not bring a consenting mind thereto.”
The defence asked that Mrs Burrell pay a court determined price for Positano without any deduction for claimed expectancy interest if the 2018 Sale Agreement was found to be enforceable.
Mrs Burrell has claimed she was told by her mother from the mid-90s that she intended to leave her estate equally between her three children and that she would have the option to buy out her brothers Edward and Richard’s expectancy or interests in Positano at market value.
Mrs Burrell believed she held a two thirds interest in the property after assisting her brother, Richard, with a separate real estate deal in 2008 and clams that there is a Positano Option Deed signed in September of that year where Mrs Shelmerdine agreed to give Mrs Burrell the option to purchase the property.
Further she claims she and her mother signed a three-page handwritten sale agreement for Positano in January 2018.
Mrs Burrell had a caveat placed on the property in May halting any sale after her mother listed it with Peninsula Sotheby’s International.
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