A British judge has ruled that five granddaughters will receive only 50 Pounds (Rs 5,261) each from their grandfather’s 500,000 Pounds (Rs 5,26,13376) estate. The decision comes after the grandfather, a retired soldier named Frederick Ward Snr, reportedly felt hurt by his grandchildren’s lack of visits during his hospital stays for a lung condition, according to The Metro.

According to court documents, Mr Ward left the bulk of his estate to his two children, Terry Ward and Susan Wiltshire. The remaining grandchildren, children of Mr Ward’s late son Fred Jnr, received only 50 Pounds each in envelopes, sparking a family dispute.

After finding out they were mostly cut out of their grandfather Frederick Ward Snr’s will, his five granddaughters – Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward, and Janet Pett – took legal action. They argued that they should receive a third of their late grandfather’s money arguing that their uncle and aunt, Mr Ward’s other children, had unduly influenced him to change the will in their favor.  However, the judge ruled in favor of the will, upholding Mr Ward’s right to distribute his estate as he saw fit.

According toThe Metro, High Court judge Master James Brightwell has now ruled the 2018 will was ‘entirely rational, adding that the grandchildren had ‘very limited contact’ with their ‘disappointed’ grandfather.

Throwing out their case, Master Brightwell said: “Some may take the view that, as a general proposition, when a testator’s child has predeceased him, he generally ought to leave an equal share of his residue to that child’s issue.”

“However, the decision not to do so and to split the residue and thus the bulk of the estate between his surviving children can hardly be said to be provision which no reasonable testator could make.”

Ahmedabad:

Two days after a viral video showed a senior judge of the Gujarat High Court snapping at his colleague on the bench in an open court following disagreement over a matter, the former began the court session on Wednesday by apologising to her over the episode.

Justice Biren Vaishnav said he was sorry for what happened in the court on Monday.

The court was closed on Tuesday on account of Dussehra.

Justice Vaishnav, the senior judge on the bench had a heated exchange of words with puisne judge Justice Mauna Bhatt on October 23. The incident took place while Justice Vaishnav was passing an order in a matter and Justice Bhatt did not agree with it.

“What happened on Monday shouldn’t have happened. I was wrong. I am sorry for that, and we begin a new session,” Justice Vaishnav said as soon as the session began, in the presence of Justice Mauna Bhatt who is part of the division bench.

While the video of the Monday session of the division bench of Justices Vaishnav and Bhatt was pulled down from the official YouTube page of the Gujarat High Court, a purported video of the incident circulating on social media showed Justice Bhatt murmuring something to Justice Vaishnav when he was passing the order.

Upon this, Justice Vaishnav snapped, “Then you differ…We have differed in one, we can differ in the other.” Justice Bhatt then said, “It is not a question about differing.” To this, Justice Vaishnav said, “Then do not murmur, you pass a separate order. We are not taking other matters.” He then rose and left the courtroom.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)