Posted: Friday, 4 January 2019 @ 13:43
According to the Mail on Sunday, Cecil Parkinson's disabled
child is suing her late father's estate as mother claims he is 'starving them
into submission' from beyond the grave
Sara Keays wants the estate of former Conservative minister Cecil
Parkinson to give money to her daughter, the mother of former Tory minister
Cecil Parkinson's child claims he is "starving them into submission"
from beyond the grave after their daughter was left out of his will.
To recap, Sara Keays, 69, gave birth to Flora over 30 years
ago following a high-profile affair with millionaire Lord Parkinson, who died
early last year.
Ms Keays had a child with Cecil Parkinson while she was his
parliamentary assistant.
While he was alive, he paid regular maintenance to his
daughter which stopped with his death.
She is now suing the estate of the former cabinet minister
to get financial provisions for their daughter, and told the Mail on
Sunday: "We could be homeless at any time."
Parkinson, who died from cancer, excluded
33-year-old Flora from his will when he died aged 84 in January 2016 but money
set aside for Flora - said to be worth around £350,000 in the form of a life insurance
policy - has not been handed out so far.
Just some points
Cecil Parkinson and his lawyers appear to have been
reasonable as after death they have made provision for the adult child via
means of an insurance policy, though not via the will.
Where the lawyers have made an (apparent) mistake is the way
that they have handled Flora Keays by not quickly getting hold of the monies,
mitigating this, and not communicating effectively with the adult child. (e.g.
warning that previous quarterly payments would stop).
By acting in such a way, it was inevitable the child/the
child’s mother was going to get cross and Ms Keays does have a history of both
asserting her child’s rights in Court and in the Court of PR.
What the other family are left with is a newspaper story
which dredges up the long-standing affair of the deceased and that must
irritate the family like hell.
We do not know everything but this situation could (and
should) have been avoided.
Interestingly the mother, Sara Keays asserts that they
cannot afford lawyers. My firm may help in such a situation by offering a
partial no win/no fee arrangement which may help others in such a situation.