A High Court judge ruled Wednesday in favor of Jennifer Scott, the former cleaner and widow of multimillionaire Richard Scott, dismissing her stepson Adam’s claims to the family’s estimated 43 million pound estate.
Richard Scott, who died in 2018 at age 81, built his fortune running the United Kingdom’s second largest car boot fair from his Cheshire farm where the ITV series Car Boot Challenge was filmed. The businessman had 19 children, including six with his first wife Janet, six others born outside that marriage, and seven with Jennifer, who began working as his cleaner in 1993.
Adam Scott, 62, sued his stepmother Jennifer, 60, claiming his father lacked mental capacity when he signed two final wills in 2016 that excluded him from inheriting. Adam told the court he had devoted more than 40 years to working on the vast, sprawling farm and managing car boot sales, believing he would inherit based on his father’s promises.
Mr Justice Richards accepted that Richard Scott suffered from frontotemporal dementia when he disinherited Adam, but ruled the decision stemmed from a personality type that disliked being thwarted rather than one that involved his normal human instincts and affections being perverted by his mental disease. The judge added that Adam knew since 2003 his father intended to change his inheritance plans but continued working on the farm regardless.
Richard and Jennifer married in April 2016 after Adam unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the wedding, claiming his father lacked capacity to marry. Four registrars and a local council lawyer interviewed Richard and concluded he had sufficient capacity for the marriage to proceed.
The estate includes farmland around Chelford, Cheshire, officially valued at 7 million pounds for probate, though Jennifer said offers and development potential suggest it could be worth 43 million pounds. The 2016 wills made Jennifer executor and major beneficiary, with her two sons Gordon and William Redgrave Scott and Adam’s sister Rebecca Horley also named as beneficiaries.
Adam also brought a proprietary estoppel claim, arguing his father promised him the farm would be his after decades of unpaid labor. However, the judge found Richard withdrew those promises in wills executed in 2003 and 2007, which Adam knew about at the time.
