Brothers win £460,000 inheritance battle with father’s secret love children – only discovering they existed months before father’s death

Market Porter’s legitimate children have won a £460,000 inheritance battle over his estate, it was announced today, after a landmark legal victory over two beloved children whom Market Porter has kept hidden for decades. It became clear.

Michael Zimmer passed away in December 2020 at the age of 83, six months after his wife of 81 years, Julie, passed away. The couple left behind three children: Sherry (62 years old), Gregory (64 years old) and Lee (54 years old).

But before his death, the three brothers learned from relatives that their father had been living a secret and sordid double life “for decades.”

Zimmer was secretly dating a woman named Beverly Madden and had two children with him, Joseph, 29, and Charlotte, 32.

The first time the children met properly was at his funeral, where Joseph helped carry the coffin.

Mr and Mrs Zimmer did not make a will and when he died his entire estate of £461,752, including his own cash, was divided equally among all his five biological children.

This means Shelley, 62, Gregory, 64, and Lee, 54, each received £92,350, which they did not know existed. The same amount as a person’s half-brother.

But today it was revealed that two of the children, born out of wedlock, took legal action at Central London County Court and won a judgment to recover around £170,000 from their father’s estate. It would be given to them instead of being sent to their half-brothers.

Mr Gregory and Ms Lee argued it would be unfair to divide their £460,000 inheritance equally. This is because the father inherited the mother’s share when she died, and her estate would effectively be divided between her cheating husband’s beloved children and her own children.

The half-siblings tried to argue that the late Mrs Zimmer knew about the incident and would have changed her will if she had been “concerned” about inheriting the property, but the judge rejected this. .

This means Lee and Gregory will each walk away with around £143,000 from their parents’ estate, while the other three siblings will end up with just £58,000 each.

An order setting out the terms of the sentence and the exact amount each of the five will receive will be finalized at a later date, but the two beloved children are expected to lose around £40,000 each.

Mr Zimmer’s case “was carried out in secrecy for decades, starting at least in 1992”, Judge Jonathan Cohen KC explained.

All five children were “innocent victims” of the “chaos” caused by their father, and while Charlotte and Joseph knew about his other family members, none of the half-siblings knew about them after Mrs. Zimmer’s death. I had no idea they existed until then.

The judge said: “They are all completely innocent of their father’s deceptive conduct, which has led to the unfortunate mess that is now before us and which the court is seeking to resolve.” said.

He gave Mr Gregory and Ms Lee a third each of their mother’s share of the couple’s joint estate, worth around £85,000.

He ruled that under the 1975 Inheritance Act, the brothers had dire financial needs and were entitled to each receive one-third of the mother’s share of the family estate. , made this decision. Her younger sister, Shelley Frost, on the other hand, has less serious needs.

The court heard that the late Mr Zimmer worked as a store clerk to support his family, while Mr Zimmer worked as a market porter.

Rory Brown, the brothers’ solicitor, explained that through a lifetime of work, the brothers had owned a mortgage-free £450,000 family home in Home Close, Carshalton.

But hidden from his daily life as a hard-working father, Mr. Zimmer was having an affair and starting a second secret family.

“Charlotte and Joseph knew from an early age that Mr. Zimmer had another family, and they knew that the other family did not know about them,” the judge said in court.

“They received strict instructions from Michael on how to communicate, or not communicate, with Michael, so as not to give away the secret of their existence.”

From the witness stand, Joseph Zimmer told the judge that the first time he and his sister met Sherry and her siblings was at their father’s funeral, when Sherry “came in with a beetle and complained that she felt betrayed.” “I started saying that,” he said.

However, Charlotte and Joseph’s mother, Beverly, claims that Mrs. Ziemer knew about her husband’s long-term affair starting around 1998, and that if she wanted to disinherit her children, she could choose to do so by making a will. claimed to have done so.

On the witness stand, Ms. Joseph supported her mother’s testimony, arguing that Mrs. Zimmer’s years of infidelity would have discouraged her children from inheriting a portion of her estate.

A lawyer for the three brothers told him: “Julie seriously says she doesn’t care whether the children took all her money or whether the children of this extramarital affair took anything from it either.” Do you want to?” he asked.

But he replied, “I don’t know what Julie wanted, but she didn’t make a will, so I think that’s what she wanted.” I don’t think she cared. ”

But Mr Brown denied the idea that Mrs Zimmer knew or tolerated her husband’s other women or children, saying: “Charlotte and Joseph did not know about Julie Zimmer and “I have never met or spoken to him,” he said.

“Plaintiffs allege that Julie knew about the affair and of Joseph and Charlotte’s existence, and the suggestion that their mother would have been happy that Michael and his mistress’ children benefited from her estate is It is considered to be nonsense.”

“They had no expectations, much less any reasonable expectation, of inheriting from her.

“They weren’t even treated as her children, they didn’t have any relationship with her, and she didn’t have any responsibility for them either.

“There is no principled reason why they should also inherit plaintiff’s mother’s estate. They have no moral claim to Julie Zimmer’s assets.”

Mr Brown also told the court that his three siblings helped care for his parents during their declining years, and that the five-way division of the spoils was a “reasonable provision” in line with their rights under the Inheritance Act 1975. He claimed that it was not provided.

On the witness stand, Ms Shelley said she had no clue about her father’s infidelity until after her mother died, and denied suggestions by her half-brother’s barrister that she sometimes “called her Charlotte instead of Shelley”.

She first learned of her father’s double life after her mother’s funeral, when her older brother Lee told her that his cousin had exposed their secret family.

Estelle Lear, a lawyer representing Charlotte and Joseph, said she first met her half-siblings at their father’s funeral, during which Joseph carried his late father’s coffin. Despite this, the lawyer suggested that Shelley appeared to be “rude and hostile.”

“You came to complain that you felt betrayed,” she continued.

“I wish I could have said I felt betrayed. Of course I was,” Shelley said, but denied Joseph’s claims that she knew about the other family members.

After a three-day trial, Recorder Cohen KC ruled that brothers Gregory and Lee each acquired a third of Julie’s share of the couple’s estate, said to be worth £255,000, and the last The court ruled that one-third of the money would be divided equally among all five children.

All five will continue to share in the family fortune left by their father.

The judge ruled against Charlotte and Joseph getting an equal share of the total amount, especially given Julie’s “open” personality and “incompetence”, making it clear that she knew about her relationship with her husband. He said it was unlikely that he would have kept it a secret from his children. Please keep the secret. ”

The judge said: “I was not satisfied with the evidence that Julie had actual knowledge of the relationship with Beverley or of the existence of Charlotte and Joseph.”