A woman who was promised an equal share of her mother's $6 million
estate to remain quiet about being sexually abused by her father as a
child has successfully sued over the inheritance.
According to The Age,the
mother, who died in 2012 aged 93, left her daughter with 22 percent of
the estate and gave the majority of it to her two sons despite their
agreement.
She also made it clear she didn't want her 38-year-old
grandson to receive anything from the estate because he informed police
in 2005 that his grandfather also sexually abused him when he was a
child, Victoria's Supreme Court heard.
Her 62-year-old daughter and her son were both awarded sums of money after suing the executor of her mother's estate.
Supreme
Court Justice Kate McMillan ordered the daughter to receive a $775,000
property and $100,000, while her son was to receive $175,000.
The
court heard the woman was 14 when her father started sexually abusing
her and it continued for 12 months in various parts of their family
home.
She informed her mother when she realised she could potentially fall pregnant and was told she would 'take care' of it.
A
few days later, her mother told (the daughter) that she had discussed
it with her father. He had begged for forgiveness and said he would not
do it again,' Justice McMillan said.
'Her mother told her that if
she left her husband, (the daughter) would lose out as the estate they
were building together would go entirely to her husband.'
While the abuse stopped, the woman's father made her life hell until she married in 1973.
After
her father died eight years ago, the woman claimed her mother told her
she didn't leave her father because 'this will be all yours one day'.
'(The
daughter) described her mother as being kind and affectionate to her
children but her downfall was that she had a weak nature and did not
protect the children from their father,' Justice McMillan said.
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