The owners of the Chinese restaurant which made Golda ‘Goldie’ Bechal’s favourite £3.70 pickled leek and beansprout dish have been allowed to keep almost £10million that the wealthy widow bequeathed to them.
The High Court today upheld Mrs Bechal’s will, in which she left the bulk of her fortune to Kim Sing and Bee Man, the owners of the Lian Chinese restaurant in Witham, Essex, where she regularly dined.
Mrs Bechal’s relatives had appealed to the High Court to overturn the will, claiming it was made when the property magnate was of unsound mind.
The court rejected the challenge by her five nephews and nieces - Sandra Blackman, Barbara Green, Laurence Lebor, Louise Barnard and Mervyn Lebor - who claimed they were entitled to inherit her estate.
“Judge Sir Donald Rattee ruled that despite Mrs Bechal’s fading memory, she “had testamentary capacity” and that her will, executed in August 1994, was valid.”
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Elderly Briton leaves fortune to Chinese restaurant owner
The family of a wealthy British pensioner who left her entire fortune to the owners of a Chinese restaurant failed Friday in a legl bid to have her will declared invalid.
Nephews and nieces of Golda "Goldie" Bechal claimed that she was of unsound mind when she made the will leaving 10 million pounds (13.9 million euros, 20 million dollars) to her Kim Sing Man and his wife Bee Lian Man.
But a judge at London's High Court ruled that the testament, made in 1994, remained valid when Bechal died in 2004, aged 88, leaving a portfolio of commercial properties to her long-standing "best friends".
"In my judgment, on the balance of probabilities, Mrs Bechal had testamentary capacity. The will executed by Mrs Bechal in August 1994 was valid," said judge Donald Rattee.
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