A man has been left "homeless and penniless" after taking his sister to Court over his mother’s deathbed will and losing.
According to the Eastbourne Herald, Gary Watts, 45, claimed his mother Valerie had written his surviving sister Christine Watts out of her will on her deathbed.
But Judge Catherine Newman QC handed Ms Watts victory last year when she ruled her brother had forged their mother’s signature on the deathbed will, accusing him of acting out of a "sense of entitlement" to the whole of the £200,000 estate.
Christine Watts was given £100,000 of the estate, with her brother also failing in his appeal against the decision.
However Gary Watt’s loss of the case also means he is liable to pay his sister’s £342,000 legal bill, dwarfing the money he lost.
Outside court, Mr Watts said: “It outweighs the whole of my late mother’s estate, never mind just my half.
"There will be an excess of more than £100,000 which will make me homeless. They will take my house and make me homeless."
The court heard 71-year-old Valerie Watts, of Penney Close, Dartford, Kent, died from cancer in London’s St Thomas’s Hospital in January 2011.
Gary Watts claimed his mother had cut his sister Christine out of any inheritance in a new will she signed during her final days.
He said that was because he had been "diligently attentive" to their ailing mother, whereas he claimed his sister had only visited her twice.
Gary also accused his sister of being a benefits-dependent slacker who was waiting for a payout from their mother’s death to settle her debts.
But Judge Newman found that Gary had “simulated” his mother’s signature on the 2011 will.
She ruled in favour of a 1999 will by which Mrs Watts split her estate equally between her two adopted children.
