Daughter bested by father's bitter legacy

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Auckland woman Inge Brown is shattered after three years of fighting her father's $4.6 million will - his "last battle from beyond the grave".

Mrs Brown says her self-made millionaire father, Eric Miller, who moved here from Denmark in the 1950s, treated his two daughters appallingly when they were growing up.

And after his death he dragged Mrs Brown into the public eye by pitting her against worthy charities to fight for a share of his estate.

"My father made his wealth over many years and he did it at a price. He was not a nice father, he was quite terrible.

"My mother and sister and I, we grew up really poorly and he neglected us. In his most affluent times we were struggling."

Three years of court battles ended in the Court of Appeal last week when the $1.6 million the High Court at Auckland had awarded Mrs Brown was almost halved to around $850,000 - about 20 per cent of her father's net estate.

Mr Miller left more money to a former girlfriend and to her daughter than to his own daughter, who was left "virtually nothing".

Mrs Brown's three children received a substantial legacy, but around 60 per cent of his $4.6 million estate was bequeathed to charities.

The Auckland City Mission was to receive two-thirds, the Cancer Society $500,000 and the Salvation Army the rest.

Mrs Brown contested the will under the Family Protection Act, which says parents can divide their estate as they like as long as they discharge their moral duty to their children.

But the fight did not end when the High Court at Auckland awarded Mrs Brown the $1.6 million.

The charities - excluding the Cancer Society - took the unusual step of fighting back for the money they had been bequeathed.

Last night, Mrs Brown said she had nothing against the charities and was sure the money would be put to good use, but she did not want people to glorify her "miserable and manipulative" father.

When her sister, Freda, was dying of cancer he refused to lend her $3000 for alternative treatment, and refused to pay for her funeral.

He then bequeathed more money for flowers for her grave than he left to Mrs Brown.

"I know if my sister had been alive today she would be right beside me doing the same. She absolutely loathed him."

Mrs Brown said her husband, Shane, had also been the target of nastiness by her father.

Behind it all could have been an acrimonious divorce from her mother and bitterness that the girls wanted to stay with her, she said.

The option open to her is to go to the Privy Council. Mrs Brown's lawyer, Bill Patterson, said the Court of Appeal decision would have repercussions for all future contested will court cases involving adult children.

"It appears that even children that are not particularly well off can't expect courts to give them very much out of their parent's estate," Mr Patterson said.

He said that considering Mr Miller's worth, the case was one of the most striking examples of inadequate provision he had seen.

Diane Robertson, the Auckland City Missioner, would not comment about legalities of the case, but said the money would be used to feed homeless people and go towards crisis and elderly-care services.