FORMER RTÉ press and information officer Anthony Lyons has told the High Court that late art collector Gordon Lambert had given him power of attorney over his estate because the deceased believed his family would put him into a home.
Relatives of Mr Lambert, an art collector and former managing director of Jacob’s Biscuits, are challenging his final will made in August 2003. Mr Lambert, who suffered with Parkinson’s Disease for some 20 years prior to his death, died in 2005.
The challenge is by Mr Lambert’s niece June Lambert, Pembroke Lane, Dublin, and her cousin, Mark Lambert of Rathdown Park, Greystones.
Mr Lyons is a beneficiary of the estate and stands to inherit the residue after disbursements to family members and others.
When the case resumed yesterday before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy, Mr Lyons (75) gave evidence of how he came to know Mr Lambert.
He said he was press and information executive with RTÉ in 1965 and met Mr Lambert who was then managing director of Jacobs and was involved in the Jacob’s television awards.
In reply to his counsel Frank Callanan SC, Mr Lyons said a power of attorney was executed by Mr Lambert in his favour in November 1997 and registered in 2003. “I didn’t think I was in his circle at all but one day he phoned me and said he had Parkinsons disease and was thinking of executing this will,” he said.
Mr Lyons said he told Mr Lambert his family would do that but Mr Lambert had replied “no, no” and had said they would put him into a home and he didn’t want to go into a home. “I then realised he was distancing himself from his family and I got the feeling he was quite afraid,” Mr Lyons said.
“He didn’t want to be removed from his home . . . he had lots of visitors the whole time and he loved the garden.”
The hearing continues.