The Will of a Royal Marine killed in action in Afghanistan has been challenged by a former girlfriend who claimed she was entitled to a share of the estate. Sergeant John Manuel was tragically killed by a suicide bomber in 2008. His Will left his £290,000 estate to his mother who had raised him and his siblings single handedly. The claimant, Rachel Douglas, said that she had been in a six year relationship with the deceased and sought to receive £60,000 from the estate. Sgt Manuel’s brother, the executor of the estate, wanted her to receive only £10,000 stating that the relationship had been ‘rocky’ and producing a witness who claimed she had an affair with the marine. The family claimed that Ms Douglas only had a casual relationship with the deceased however she proved that she had lived with him continuously for more than two years prior to his death as his partner. The judge agreed with Ms Douglas stating that the evidence of a ‘single domestic economy’ showed that they lived as a couple and that there was ‘an emotional tie’ between the two of them. He awarded the claimant a total of £17,440 but ordered that she shared the costs of the legal action. It is assumed that the challenge is largely successful due to the Will that disinherited the claimant being written back in 2002, before the couple were together. Just weeks before Sgt Manuel left for Afghanistan he told his brother that he wanted her to receive just £10,000 if anything should happen to him while he was on tour.

 The above article was published by The Society of Willwriters in England