- A millionaire died and left his wife nothing in his will.
- A judge rewrote the will and gave the wife a cottage her husband owned and extra cash on the side calling his will a “mistake.”
- Before his death, the husband promised his wife she’d be taken care of.
After a millionaire died, his wife of 42 years discovered he’d left her nothing in his will. Not a penny. In fact he’d written in his will that his $2.1-million could go to two of his tenants who’d “been kind to him” in his final years.
Joan Thompson was married to Wynford Hodge for 42 years before he died last year. Upon writing his will, Hodge had deemed Joan “financially comfortable” even though she only had $3,500 in the bank.
Hodge, who owned Parsonage Farm and Caravan Park in Wales, made it very clear in his will that he didn’t want his wife or her four children to inherit his fortune. Joan ended up living off benefits in a nursing home, but longed to live back on the family estate where she had a life and friends. That’s when Judge Jarman stepped in. He ended up re-writing Hodge’s will and handed Joan a $318,000 cottage on the estate. The judge believes Hodge failed to take care of his wife and ruled that Hodge’s belief that his wife was set as a “mistake.”
Besides the new crib, Joan will also get $268,000 in pure cash to get the home refurbished and to give her some financial support. According to “The Sun,” Hodge had written more than 10 wills before passing of prostate cancer and originally told his wife before he passed “not to worry as she would be well looked after.” Joan will now be looked after in the cottage by her son Dean and his wife.