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Home > News > World News > Article > Millionaire leaves kin Rs 60 in will

Millionaire leaves kin Rs 60 in will

Updated on: 27 April,2010 07:10 AM IST  | 
Agencies |

Australian Valmai Roche, who died last year aged 81, bequeathed her children and ex-husband $1.5 AUD (Rs 60) "blood money" from her estate, which is reported to be worth around ufffd2.1m (Rs 14.5 crore)

Millionaire leaves kin Rs 60 in will

Australian Valmai Roche, who died last year aged 81, bequeathed her children and ex-husband $1.5 AUD (Rs 60) "blood money" from her estate, which is reported to be worth around ufffd2.1m (Rs 14.5 crore)


But two of her daughters have claimed their mother was delusional and are challenging her will in the South Australian Supreme Court.




The rest of her fortune was left to the Catholic men's charity Southern Cross.

Her mother Dorothy Maude Haber was cared for in a nursing home before her death, but documents do not say how or when she died.

Roche's daughters -- Deborah Hamilton, Fiona Roche and Shauna Roche -- can also claim equal shares in their mother's jewellery.

However they must correctly answer questions about her personal diaries which were kept from January 1974 until October 1981, the date her will was written.

But Hamilton has accused her mother of "fixed, false and incorrigible views" over the death of Haber and alleges her "delusions" meant she was incapable of "making a reasonable and proper disposition of her estate".

Along with her sisters she has taken the case to court claiming they should be "entitled to inherit" their mother's fortune.

Roche went as far as to "specifically exclude" her children and ex-husband "from any further benefits" claiming they "have been adequately provided for" during the later years of her life.

Roche, who was Adelaide City Council Lord Mayor from 1975 until 1977, was also excluded from further benefit due to the "irretrievable breakdown" of their marriage in 1983.

Only one change was made to her will in 1987 to bequeath a French Empire style desk to her daughter Fiona, who now heads the family's Roche Group which is regularly listed among the top 200 rich companies in Australia.

Court documents reveal Ms Roche enquired about changing her will in 2007, but no new will could be found.

Lawyers for the family have refused to comment on the case, which returns to court next month.

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