THE stepdaughters of an elderly couple found dead together at home have asked a judge to rule who died first to decide who gets their £280,000 house. Anna Winter and Deborah Cutler are fighting over the home and cash left by John Scarle, 79, and his wife Ann, 69. They both died of hypothermia at […]
THE stepdaughters of an elderly couple found dead together at home have asked a judge to rule who died first to decide who gets their £280,000 house.
Anna Winter and Deborah Cutler are fighting over the home and cash left by John Scarle, 79, and his wife Ann, 69.
They both died of hypothermia at their bungalow in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. in October 2016.
Now their children from previous marriages have asked a judge to decide which parent died first in the first case of its kind in Britain in 70 years.
The stepdaughters are using evidence from neighbours who last saw their parents.
They are also providing details of post found inside the house and the condition of the couple’s bodies when found.
If Mr Scarle died first then his wife would have briefly inherited his share of the property – meaning Mrs Scarle’s child Deborah Cutler would be next in line.
But if Mrs Scarle died first, Mr Scarle’s daughter Anna Winter should receive the home, the High Court heard.
The highly unusual case is the first of its kind in the UK since the 1950s – but were more common during the Second World War when families were all killed by the same bomb during the London Blitz.
In the latest case, the family of whichever of the couple survived longest is set to inherit the £280,000
John Scarle’s daughter, Anna Winter, insists that her step-mum probably died first, which would mean her dad briefly inherited his wife’s share of the house when she died, and then passed it to his daughter when he died.
But Deborah Cutler, daughter of Ann Scarle, claims the order of deaths cannot be determined and that the “legal presumption” is that her stepdad – the older of the couple – died first, meaning she and her brother, Andre Farley, should get the house.
“The events which took place between 3-4 October and 11 October 2016 are unlikely ever to be known,” Mrs Cutler’s barrister, James Weale, told Judge Phillip Kramer.
“The most that one can do is speculate as to what might have happened.
“None of the experts was able to express any view as to even the approximate date – let alone time – of the death of either of John or Ann.”
The court heard the couple began their relationship in 1983 and bought their Eastwood Road home in 1988 using the proceeds of sale of Mrs Scarle’s house in Westcliff Park Drive.
Despite being ten years older, Mr Scarle, who died at 79, was his wife’s full-time carer during the last decades of their life after she suffered a stroke around 1998.
Mrs Scarle, who was 69 when she died, required a mobility aid to walk around inside and a wheelchair when outdoors, whereas her husband had no problems getting around the house.
Mr Scarle was last seen on October 3 or 4, 2016, when he spoke to a neighbour, saying he was “getting the car ready for Ann”, suggesting both were still alive at that point, said Mr Weale.
They were found dead of hypothermia on the evening of October 11, with the property in disarray. It had been targeted by vandals or burglars, with windows broken and a door left ajar.
Mr Weale said it is likely that at least one of them was alive on October 7 – the date of their 26th wedding anniversary – because a card sent by Mrs Cutler was found opened.
But he said there was no evidence on which it could safely be concluded which of the tragic pair succombed to hypothermia first.
“There is no direct evidence from any witness which sheds any light on the date or time on which either John or Ann died,” he said.
“As a consequence, such a determination is an inherently speculative exercise which involves weighing uncertain circumstantial evidence against uncertain pathological evidence.”
For Mrs Winter, barrister Amrik Wahiwala said the evidence showed that, “on the balance of probabilities”, it was Mrs Scarle who died first.
The state of her body when police found the couple suggested that she had been dead longest, he said.
However, Mr Weale argued that even if it could be shown that Mrs Scarle “probably” died first, that is not enough to enable Mr Scarle’s family to inherit.
The presumption that the oldest died first under the Law of Property Act 1925 is there to provide a solution in cases where it is “uncertain” who survived longest, he said.
Mrs Winter would have to show it is “beyond reasonable doubt” that Mrs Scarle died first in order to inherit, he said.
There would need to be “clear, reliable and compelling evidence” to prove that and the medical evidence “does not come close to supporting such a conclusion”, Mr Weale added.
The judge has reserved his ruling on the dispute until a later date.
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