Deputy Master Bowles said that the properties should fall into Abbas\u2019s estate to be inherited by Ms Teixeira and her children.<\/p>\n
The documents, declaring that the properties were not entirely Abbas\u2019s, were a sham designed to prevent his widow from accessing most of his wealth, said the judge.<\/p>\n
Ms Teixeira, who is also a birth doula, met Abbas at The Gate in Notting Hill, the restaurant he owned at the time, and began dating him in 2001.<\/p>\n
Abbas was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and died in May 2012. His last will left his estate in third shares to his widow and two children.<\/p>\n
But the court heard that the estate was \u201csubstantially diminished\u201d because of documents signed before Abbas died that transferred the property rights to other family members.<\/p>\n
\u2018Obvious shams\u2019<\/p>\n
In court, Alexander Learmonth KC, Ms Teixeira\u2019s barrister, argued that the documents were \u201cobviously shams\u201d.<\/p>\n
He pointed to an attendance note from a meeting between Abbas\u2019s solicitor and Amir, when Abbas was \u201cseriously unwell\u201d at home.<\/p>\n
The lawyer\u2019s note stated: \u201c[Amir\u2019s] concern was what would happen if Abbas passed away and his wife disappeared with the two children to Brazil.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could they prevent this, and how could they prevent her from having access to the funds from the property assets?\u201d<\/p>\n
A subsequent note added: \u201cAmir confirmed his main intention was to secure Abbas\u2019s children\u2019s welfare because he was certain that any assets passed over to Abbas\u2019s wife would be dissipated.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Amir claimed that the four properties, including Ms Teixeira\u2019s former homes, were only ever put into Abbas\u2019s name for \u201ccultural reasons\u201d because he was the elder brother.<\/p>\n
\u2018False narrative\u2019<\/p>\n
Giving judgment on the dispute, Deputy Master Bowles rejected Amir\u2019s explanations of the trust documents as fiction designed to cover up the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were a means to an end, that end being to present Abbas\u2019s estate as being much smaller than was the case, and to do so by the purported confirmation of informal trust arrangements that had no basis in fact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to the false narrative set out in the recitals to declarations of trust, the properties are not and never have been held on the informal trusts alleged in those recitals and in the declarations of trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extrinsic evidence fully supports the view that Abbas has always been the legal and beneficial owner of the properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court heard that Abbas\u2019s will leaves the estate in equal shares to his widow and children, but that the children only inherit once they reach a \u201cdesignated age\u201d.<\/p>\n
A claim by Ms Teixeira to increase what she will receive under the will is set to take place at a later date, with her two children both supporting her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deputy Master Bowles said that the properties should fall into Abbas\u2019s estate to be inherited by Ms Teixeira…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,63355,145692,4176,48023,50,4174,4175,5438,56,225,54,55],"class_list":["post-618450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-central-london","tag-court-cases","tag-finance","tag-london-property","tag-news","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-standard","tag-uk","tag-uk-news","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}