Key Takeaways
- A penniless beautician, Margaret Dinsdale, is suing her late husband’s secret wife, Dr. Victoria Fowell, for allegedly plundering his £1.8million estate.
- James Dinsdale, a millionaire bigamist accountant, died in 2020, leaving behind a vast fortune and a complicated legal mess.
- Margaret Dinsdale is seeking to freeze Dr. Fowell’s assets, claiming she has treated the estate as if she is solely entitled to it and has dissipated the assets to prevent Margaret from getting her share.
- The court has imposed a limited injunction, freezing the estate assets and Dr. Fowell’s main personal assets, and has ordered her to draw up accounts detailing what has happened to the assets of the estate.
Introduction to the Case
The case of Margaret Dinsdale vs. Dr. Victoria Fowell is a complex and intriguing one, involving a bigamist husband, a vast fortune, and a bitter inheritance row. James Dinsdale, a millionaire accountant, died in 2020, leaving behind a £1.8million estate and two wives, Margaret Dinsdale and Dr. Victoria Fowell, who he married in Las Vegas five years apart without getting a divorce. The case has sparked a heated debate about the rights of spouses in cases of bigamy and the distribution of assets in the absence of a will.
The Background of the Case
Margaret Dinsdale, a 41-year-old beautician, married James Dinsdale in 2017, under the assumption that he was divorced from his first wife, Dr. Victoria Fowell. However, it was later discovered that James had not divorced Dr. Fowell, making Margaret’s marriage to him void and leaving her with no automatic right to inherit his fortune. Dr. Fowell, on the other hand, was still legally married to James and was therefore entitled to a share of his estate under intestacy laws. The court has recognized Margaret’s rights as a spouse, and she is now pursuing a claim to a substantial part of James’ fortune under the Inheritance Act.
The Allegations Against Dr. Fowell
Margaret Dinsdale’s barrister, Gideon Roseman, has accused Dr. Fowell of plundering James’ estate to prevent Margaret from getting her share. It is alleged that Dr. Fowell has treated the estate as if she is solely entitled to it, despite the fact that Margaret is also a spouse of James. The court has heard that Dr. Fowell has sold two properties left by James, a pub and a cottage, for a combined value of £600,000, which is significantly lower than their true value. The likely explanation for this, according to the barrister, is that Dr. Fowell wanted to get her hands on the cash as quickly as possible to frustrate Margaret’s claim.
The Court’s Decision
After a half-day hearing, Mr. Justice Mann refused to grant a full freezing order, which would have had a dire and disproportionate impact on Dr. Fowell’s dental business. However, he did impose a more limited injunction, freezing the estate assets and Dr. Fowell’s main personal assets, including her home and dental practice. Dr. Fowell was also ordered to draw up accounts detailing what has happened to the assets of the estate. The judge noted that it was unclear where all the money in James’ estate had gone and that it was possible that there were still assets from the estate that had not been disclosed.
The Impact on the Parties Involved
The case has had a significant impact on both Margaret Dinsdale and Dr. Fowell. Margaret has been living on universal credit and raising a small child, while Dr. Fowell has been running a successful dental practice and caring for her elderly parents. The court’s decision has brought Margaret a step closer to concluding the proceedings and allowing her to properly mourn her late husband. However, the case is far from over, and it remains to be seen how the assets of James’ estate will be distributed and whether Dr. Fowell will be found to have wrongly dissipated the estate.
