Sisters Jazz and Ann Scott want to know what happened to between $200,000 and $400,000 of their mother’s assets that disappeared when under control of brother Paul. Legal action has been taken.
Mary Patricia Scott-Smith died in February 2015, diagnosed with dementia. Her net estate was valued at some $250,000. Circumstances in which everything was left to daughter Ann came to light in a Family Protection Act claim by sister Jazz.
The High Court was told their mother sold the Wellington family home at Seatoun in 2003, buying a new home in Strathmore Park. Six months later, Paul moved in. The financial surplus on sale of Seatoun is unaccounted for. Five years later, Strathmore Park was sold with the proceeds shifted offshore as part of a plan for her move to Thailand with Paul and his wife Kenzie. Six months later she was back in New Zealand, buying back her Strathmore property at the price she sold it for, but with insufficient funds to complete the purchase. Paul said some $227,000 had been spent in the previous six months. The Strathmore re-purchase was completed with mortgage finance in the names of Paul, his mother Mary Patricia, and wife Kenzie. All three names went on the title. Over subsequent years, Mary Patricia lived variously with daughter Ann and also Paul. Aged Concern intervened in 2011, after a physical altercation between Paul and his mother. She was admitted to Wellington hospital.
Leaving everything to Ann in her 2009 will, their mother explained Paul ‘had had enough already’ and that Jazz was ‘not owed anything’ because there had been minimal contact between them.
Ann agreed Jazz was entitled to a share of their late mother’s estate, offering ten per cent. After a Family Protection Act hearing, entitlement to a ten per cent share was confirmed. The court ruling explicitly stated Jazz was also entitled to receive ten per cent of any recovery in legal action underway against brother Paul.
Scott v. Garnham – High Court (23.03.21)
21.056