D'Audney estate payout halved

Broadcaster Angela D'Audney's death-bed request to "fight at all costs" her former lover's claim against her estate has been laid to rest.

Property investor and builder Rob Webster, of Auckland, would get just half the $128,776 awarded to him by the High Court after D'Audney's death in February 2002, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. It also awarded her estate $5000 costs.

Mike Brewerton, a long-time friend who drove D'Audney around Auckland's waterfront and fed her sips of champagne by syringe just days before she died of a brain tumour aged 57, said Mr Webster had originally sought half her $500,000 of investment properties.

While he was pleased that had been whittled down to one-eighth, Mr Brewerton said $60,000 was too much.

"Five dollars would have been $5 too much," he said.

"If Angela was alive, she would say the same thing."

Although in an advanced stage of terminal illness in late 2001, D'Audney ensured her evidence was recorded so it could be used in the court case Mr Webster, 13 years her junior, brought against her.

When the High Court awarded Mr Webster a one-quarter share after her death, the executors and trustees of D'Audney's estate appealed.

D'Audney and Mr Webster lived together from 1985 until 1999, in her Auckland home. Later she bought some flats as investments.

The relationship began when she was 41 and he was 28.

After the couple separated, Mr Webster sued her for a share of her property.

He eventually accepted he should not receive an interest in her home but maintained he should have an interest in the flats because they had verbally agreed to be partners in property ownership and development, or that he contributed to them on the understanding he would acquire an interest.

Mr Webster was a builder and property developer in his own right.

The debt levels on his properties were such that he said he could not pay much to the couple's joint household expenses, but he carried out repairs and maintenance and did routine domestic chores.

He said he managed D'Audney's property investments for her and did repairs.

The High Court judge assessed the value of Mr Webster's advice, tenancy administration and rent collection at $26,988, plus the value of some maintenance work.

The Court of Appeal said the award of nearly $129,000 went "far beyond the demands of equity", and halved it.

It said D'Audney earned a relatively high income and seemed to have been a punctilious manager of her finances.

She treated Mr Webster generously but kept a reasonably close eye on the indebtedness between herself and Mr Webster throughout the relationship.

The High Court judge said that after the couple parted she was "clearly appalled" Mr Webster had sued her because she thought financial matters between them were resolved.

The Court of Appeal said the couple had plainly lived together on a declared and understood basis that their private property would remain independent.

Accounts were kept between them, there was no suggestion D'Audney expected a share of Mr Webster's investments, and "the disdain she clearly had for his attempt to claim an interest in her assets" all pointed to an expectation that what was his would remain his and what was hers would remain hers.

The court noted that D'Audney had made generous advances to Mr Webster and lent her credit-worthy name to save him financial embarrassment.

It said she was well placed to pay for professional management of her flats, and her evidence suggested a sense of sufferance rather than relief over Mr Webster's contributions from time to time.

- NZPA