Court feud over former Sydney Miss World contestant’s $19 million estate
The estate of a former Sydney beauty queen, valued at an eye-watering $19 million, was divvied up by the NSW Supreme Court last week.
A bitter feud has played out in the NSW Supreme Court over the validity of a former Miss World contestant’s will, apportioning an estate worth $19 million.
Gail Margaret Thelen, runner-up in the 1974 Miss World beauty pageant and a former police officer, rewrote her will just days before her death. The revisions provided her then de facto partner, Steven Rundle Bone, with the right to live in her $12 million Clontarf property.
Paul Petith, Ms Thelen’s brother, brought the case to the Supreme Court to challenge the legal legitimacy of the revisions to her will, arguing she lacked the capacity to understand them and that they were procured by way of undue influence.
Handing down his judgment on Thursday last week, Justice Ian Pike determined that while Ms Thelen and Mr Bone’s relationship “was no doubt a loving and caring one”, the most recent changes to her will were primarily driven by Mr Bone. He was “the person to benefit most” from such changes, Justice Pike said.
Ms Thelen, born in 1955, represented Australia in the 1974 Miss World competition, before turning to law enforcement, following her father and brother into the police force. She resigned only a few years later.
Her marriage to Werner Thelen was where she “accumulated considerable wealth,” Justice Pike said. They “appeared to have a rather envious lifestyle, including travelling the world on cruise ships”.
Ms Thelen met Steven Bone in November of 2014 on a cruise from Barcelona to Singapore shortly after the death of her second husband, Werner, in September that same year. The pair quickly formed a romantic relationship, with Mr Bone “extending his time on the cruise, moving into Gail’s cabin to spend the remainder of the cruise with her,” Pike said.
For the next six years the pair, according to Mr Bone’s testimony, only spent 11 months apart. They divided their time between Sydney, the Gold Coast and Santa Fe, where Mr Bone originally resided.
Over the course of seven years, Ms Thelen had made a number of wills with Mr Bone’s “interest in Gail’s estate increased in each,” according to Justice Pike.
“The principal change in the Codicil, the 2019 Will and the 2021 Will were increases in Mr Bone’s legacy,” he said in his judgment.
The 2018 and 2019 revisions saw Mr Bone first handed $1 million, then a third share of the income of Ms Thelen’s multimillion-dollar trust, split between the sister of her late husband, her brother and Mr Bone.
Justice Pike’s judgment ruled that in relation to the 2019 will, “that Gail had capacity at the time and further that she knew and understood the contents of the Will.”
He additionally ruled that there was nothing to suggest that Ms Thelen’s will was overborne by Mr Bone.
The case came to a head, when Ms Thelen modified her will once more just days before her death, giving Mr Bone, “a right to live for his life at the Clontarf Property or, in effect, at an alternative home using so much of the sale price of the Clontarf Property, or the rent from it, to buy/rent the alternative home.”
Justice Pike, in examining the circumstances surrounding the 2021 will was, “far from satisfied that Gail knew and understood the terms of the will.”
“Even assuming Gail did have testamentary capacity, there were a number of issues with her cognition as a result of a number of falls consequent upon long term alcohol abuse,” he said.
She had also been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and had undergone three courses of chemotherapy. There were frequent references to her being depressed.
While Mr Bone was the person to benefit most from the 2021 revisions, Justice Pike was not satisfied, “that there was any undue influence exerted by Mr Bone”.
Justice Pike ruled that the 2019 version of Mr Thelen’s will be submitted to probate, meaning Mr Bone and two others will be beneficiaries of a testamentary trust valued at an eye-watering $19 million.
In total Mr Bone will receive a $1 million legacy payment, $2 million from Ms Thelen’s self-managed super fund, and payments from the trust. According to Justice Pike: “If this (the trust) earns a 5 per cent return, the annual income will be approximately $960,000 and Mr Bone’s share in the order of $320,000.”
A separate claim filed by Mr Bone for further provision was rejected by the court with Justice Pike adjudicating that, “he can readily afford, out of his own existing and to be received assets, to buy or rent suitable accommodation on Sydney’s north shore benefiting his station in life, if that is what he wants to do.”
Mr Bone’s assets, ignoring the value of his Santa Fe property, following the payments made by Ms Thelen’s estate, are in the order of $7.3 million.