The Court of Appeal has ruled that a former model must give back the £2.2 million she inherited from her former boyfriend, a Swiss banker.
Instead, the money is to go to his children. The Daily Telegraph reported that Hilary Harrison-Morgan inherited the money when her partner Dr. Rainer Kahrmann died suddenly in 2014. The couple had twin sons and had been together after Dr. Kahrmann separated from his wife, Christiane De Muller in 1991. Dr. Kahrmann also had two children with his wife. He was a highly successful banker, an art collector and clock expert who lived in luxury in London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
When he died in 2014, he had been about to net £4.4 million from property deals in the capital city. The deals went through and Mrs Harrison-Morgan received half the money. The deal resulted in a furious family row about the inheritance, with Dr. Kahrmann’s daughter, Alice, demanding that the money be returned and divided between the four children. So far, the case has cost £1 million in legal fees.
High Court took her side
Mrs Harrison-Morgan claimed the money was due to her as she has moved out of the couple’s luxury home in Belgravia so it could be put on the market. Initially, High Court judges had taken Mrs Harrison-Morgan’s side but senior judges at the Court of Appeal later ruled she was not entitled to the money and it must be returned to Dr. Kahrmann’s rightful heirs.
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Lord Justice Henderson said the late banker’s estate was entitled to assert equitable rights to the portion of the next proceeds of the property deal.
Mrs Harrison-Morgan was also ordered to pay the additional court costs bills, which total more than half a million pounds. However, she intends to appeal to the Supreme Court so the money will not need to be paid immediately.
Last year, a trial was held where Alice Kahrmann and her mother Madame De Muller challenged Mrs Harrison-Morgan’s refusal to return the money. Their claim was dismissed. Madame De Muller died in January this year, leaving her daughter to challenge the ruling alone as the administrator of her late father’s estate.
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