Will mix up sees donation accidentally go to Sheffield park rather than cancer hospital

Sheffield councillors have asked for further evidence that a bequest left to a city park charity should instead go to the city’s cancer treatment hospital as solicitors claimed they had made an error in a will.

Ruth Bell, head of parks and countryside, told members of Sheffield City Council’s charity trustee sub-committee yesterday (April 8) that a firm of solicitors had written to the council to ask it to help amend the error to the will of one of their deceased clients.

A redrafted version of the will mistakenly said that a gift should go to the Weston Park Trust, not the Weston Park Cancer Hospital, as it had stated in the original version.

Councillors were asked to agree to send a letter to the solicitors accepting that a mistake had been made and the bequest should go to the hospital.

However, they decided to defer their decision until they could consider evidence from the solicitors showing that a mistake had taken place.

Ms Bell said: “We appreciate that for the charity all we have currently is a letter from the solicitors that explains what has happened and, while we absolutely should take that as it is written and we have absolutely no reason to believe that there is anything incorrect in that letter, we do appreciate that the trustee might require further information from that solicitors confirming exactly what has happened.”

She said that the solicitors have been contacted to provide appropriate evidence to confirm that a drafting error had taken place.

Coun Douglas Johnson said he would want to see evidence of an error because the charity trustees might potentially be turning down a substantial bequest of possibly millions of pounds that was actually intended for the Weston Park Trust.

He said that it was possible that someone might value the park as somewhere to go if they or a loved one was having treatment at the hospital across the road.

“I think we ought to be really careful about downplaying the role of our parks and why people might want to leave bequests to them.”

Coun Johnson successfully called for deferral of the decision.

Senior lawyer Louise Cooper said: “I totally agree we can’t assume and just go along with what’s been said without doing a thorough investigation, so we’ve already been in contact.

“I’ve asked what notes they’ve got and I’ve asked for a statement of truth from the partner to confirm that what they are saying is actually correct.”

Coun Fran Belbin said that the solicitors should also consider making a donation of their own, either to the cancer charity or to the Weston Park charity for the additional work that the mistake has generated.

She pointed out that the letter received names the trust and includes the charity’s number.

Committee chair Coun Richard Williams said it was a question of principle, not about the amount of money involved.

He added: “To defer it any further is potentially unfair to the real benefactors – I’m not worried about the solicitors – because I assume this is holding up the execution of the will.”

Mr Hollis said the executors of the will would need to be satisfied about the evidence as well.

Ms Cooper said that the issue may have to go to the Probate Office for approval in any case.