Daughter loses Supreme Court battle against animal charities, after being cut out of her mother’s Will

Today, 15th March 2017, the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of three animal charities against a woman left out of her mother’s Will.

Heather Ilott, from Hertfordshire, was an only child and was rejected by her mother in 1978, following a disagreement over Heather’s boyfriend. When her mother, Mrs Jackson, died in 2004, Heather stood to inherit nothing as their hostility was never resolved. Instead, Mrs Jackson left most of her £486,000 estate to several charities: The Blue Cross, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Mrs Ilott was awarded £50,000 in 2007 by a district judge and this sum was then increased to £160,000 at the Court of Appeal in 2015.

Following today’s Supreme Court ruling, and the animal charities’ victory, Heather Ilott will now only receive the original sum of £50,000.