Lort Smith asks Supreme Court to order it be paid $100,000 legacy
THE son of a World War II veteran is refusing to hand over his father’s $100,000 bequest to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.
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LORT Smith Animal Hospital is pursuing the son of a World War IIveteran who bequeathed it $100,000 in his will for refusing to hand over the cash.
Two years after 92-year-old Eric Leslie Haynes will was approved for probate, Lort Smith has asked the Supreme Court to direct Mr Haynes son Neville Haynes’ to pay it the $100,000 legacy, plus interest of more than $16,000 and legal costs.
INSIDE MELBOURNE’S ANIMAL HOSPITAL
Before he died Mr Haynes had “on numerous occasions” informed Lort Smith that he intended to leave it a gift, according to a supporting affidavit by the organisation’s bequests administrator Veronica Kochan.
Ms Kochan says those promises, spanning the years 1996 to 2013, are contained in letters still held in Lort Smith’s files.
Ms Kochan says in July this year, having not heard from Mr Haynes for some time, she searched the Public Records database and discovered he had died on April 2, 2015 leaving behind a $1 million will dated June 2009.
The file also revealed Mr Hayes son, a painter and decorator who lives in Forest Hill, was the sole executor of his father’s will and had applied for and been granted probate on that will in July, 2015.
Ms Kochan said she was surprised by what she found as Lort Smith had not received any correspondence from Neville to notify it of his father’s passing, or that he had left it a legacy of $100,000 and that probate had been granted.
As the bequest had not been paid despite probate having been granted two years earlier, Ms Kochan says that in August she instructed Lort Smith’s lawyers to contact Neville Haynes’ lawyers.
Although that law firm said it no longer represented Neville, a few days later Ms Kochan claims Neville Haynes called her and said there was a “second will” and Lort Smith’s demand for payment would be forwarded to his new lawyers.
On June 6, 2015, almost a month before probate was granted on Mr Haynes 2009 will, an advertisement published on the Supreme Court website said Neville Haynes intended to apply for probate of a second will dated October 20, 2013.
Ms Kochan’s affidavit, filed last week, claims no such will has been added to the probate records.
Ms Kochan says she was aware from a letter to Lort Smith from Mr Haynes in December 2013 that he was considering whether to make a new will following his wife’s death but was not aware of him having done so.
Mr Haynes estate includes property worth $897,000 and two bank accounts totalling $112,897.
Ms Kochan says Lort Smith’s lawyers told her in September that at Neville Haynes’s instruction his former legal firm had transferred the estate funds into an account nominated by him.
A copy of his 2009 will reveals that in addition to the $100,000 bequest to the Lort Smith he left his war medals to his son, a “Japanese Sword Trophy” to his grandson, Paul Doig, with the remaining estate to be divided equally among his six children, Neville, Jeanette Hosking, Shirley Doig, John Haynes, Leslie Haynes and Jennifer Johnson.
The Lort Smith declined to comment on its legal action.
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