After having no contact with their father for over forty years, four
children of reclusive Nelson-based Wayde Carson learnt their late father had
cut them out of his will. He intended
his multi-million dollar estate boosted by wise investments following a Lotto
win be used to promote Galloway cattle.
Estate trustees got a High Court order delaying implementation of the
will to give his children time to get legal advice.
Mr Carson died
in 2015. He had no contact with his
children after separating from their mother in 1974. He left instructions that his death was not
to be advertised, siblings were not to be told and there was to be no contact
with his four estranged children. His
will directed that the balance of his estate was to go into his Carson Family
Trust. The Trust’s primary purpose is to
promote Galloway cattle. Also named as
discretionary beneficiaries are Lincoln University, his children and grandchildren,
and his relatives.
Estate
trustees expressed concern his children would lose all rights to challenge the
will once estate assets had been transferred across to the Carson Family Trust. By chance, one of the children learnt of her
father’s death over two years after the event when trying to contact him with
news his eldest child was ill with cancer.
The trustees then discovered all four children now live in Australia. At the trustees’ request, the High Court
ordered implementation of the will be delayed six months, allowing the children
time to consider making claims under the Family Protection Act. This Act allows estate claims by family
members not otherwise adequately provided for.
Rights under the Act expire once an estate is distributed. The High Court ordered one million dollars be
transferred immediately into the Carson Family Trust for the trustees at their
discretion to distribute amongst the four children. The value of Mr Carson’s estate was not
disclosed.
re Estate David Wayde Carson – High Court (14.12.17)
18.019
Post judgment note: Mr Carson's four children subsequently made Family Protection Act claims against his seventeen million dollar estate, each being awarded $1.25 million dollars. Each has a contingent right to share in his residuary estate as a discretionary beneficiary of the Carson Family Trust which is intended to operate as a trust promoting Galloway cattle. Payment to the children from this Trust is at the discretion of Carson Trust trustees.
Post judgment note: Mr Carson's four children subsequently made Family Protection Act claims against his seventeen million dollar estate, each being awarded $1.25 million dollars. Each has a contingent right to share in his residuary estate as a discretionary beneficiary of the Carson Family Trust which is intended to operate as a trust promoting Galloway cattle. Payment to the children from this Trust is at the discretion of Carson Trust trustees.