An unmarried, childless man who died in his fifties without having made a will left an estate valued at €937,404, the High Court has been told.
The beneficiaries of the estate of John Donnelly are his surviving next of kin at the time of his death, his two elderly aunts, barrister Helen O’Sullivan said.
Mr Donnelly, from Moorefield Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, died suddenly on April 24th, 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aged 54 and a patient in Tallaght Hospital at the time, Mr Donnelly was predeceased by his parents and had no siblings.
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Because he died intestate, his estate passes to his surviving next of kin, his aunt Bridget Bentley, who the court heard has Alzheimer’s disease, and his aunt Margaret O’Dea, aged 89.
Ms Bentley lacked capacity to administer the estate and Ms O’Dea, for reasons including her age, does not wish to do so, counsel said.
Ms Justice Siobhán Stack, who described the case as “sad”, said she would grant counsel’s application for an order allowing John O’Dea, a son of Margaret O’Dea, to administer the estate for the benefit of both aunts.
The judge adjourned another case in the High Court probate list involving an application by a deceased man’s ex-wife, as executrix of his estate, to prove a copy of his will in a situation where the whereabouts of the original will were unknown.
The man and his then wife, the mother of his children, made wills in June 1991 which left their estate to each other, the court heard.
The couple later separated and the issue before the court was whether the deceased man had taken up a copy of his will or just left it in his then solicitor’s office.
The couple’s children were all consenting to the application to approve the copy will as their father’s will, the judge was told.
Counsel for the executrix said she and the man never divorced, she kept her married name and the family were “all on the same page” in this matter.
Ms Justice Stack said she was adjourning the application because she needed more information from the man’s former solicitor concerning his office procedures for handling of wills.
