FORMER RTÉ broadcaster Anthony Lyons will benefit most from the last will of the late art collector, Gordon Lambert, after the High Court yesterday rejected claims by the deceased’s relatives that Mr Lyons had exercised undue influence over him.
The will, made in 2003, included the €4.5 million sale of Mr Lambert’s home at Hillside Drive, Rathfarnham, and also capped his family’s interests at €200,000.
Mr Lyons (75), a former RTÉ information executive and broadcaster of Churchtown, Dublin, was to receive three-quarters of what was left over.
A challenge to the will was brought by June Lambert, Pembroke Lane, Dublin, a niece of the deceased, and by her cousin Mark Lambert, Rathdown Park, Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Among various claims during a 13-day hearing, they alleged Mr Lyons had exercised undue influence over the businessman and collector. Mr Lyons denied all the claims. The court also heard Mr Lambert had made a total of 31 wills between 1979 and 2003.
In a reserved judgment dismissing the challenge yesterday, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy found there was no evidence of undue influence or duress and said he would accordingly allow the last will and codicil of Mr Lambert to stand. That codicil effectively disinherits any beneficiary who challenges the will.
The judge said matters pleaded in relation to duress and undue influence had not been proved by the plaintiffs.
After the judgment, which will be made available in written form within a week, Mr Lyons said he had been “vindicated”. Ms Lambert declined to comment, while Mark Lambert was not in court.
Gordon Lambert, who was also a former managing director of Jacobs Biscuits, died aged 85 in January 2005. A single man with no children, he had suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.
He left more than 300 paintings and sculptures to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) in trust, including works by Picasso and Irish artists Patrick Collins, Louis le Brocquy and Robert Ballagh.
The action by June and Mark Lambert was against Mr Lyons and two other executors of Mr Lambert’s will, Olive Beaumont, Heytesbury Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin, a trustee of the Gordon Lambert collection and a senior curator at Imma, and Catherine Marshall, Kevin Street, Dublin.
The action against Ms Beaumont and Ms Marshall was solely in their capacity as executors and no allegation of undue pressure was made against them.
The court had heard Mr Lyons was given power of attorney by Gordon Lambert in November 1997 and had organised the art collector’s daily affairs including the payment of household bills and nursing and cleaning staff.
Mr Lyons told the court he had been given power of attorney because the late Mr Lambert believed his family would put him into a home.
“I didn’t realise I was in his will at all,” he said. “I don’t have an interest in other people’s money. I always earned my own.”
Counsel for Mr Lyons also said his client was deeply offended at the suggestion he had unduly influenced his good friend Gordon Lambert in making his will.
Susan Connell, the solicitor who drew up Mr Lambert’s last will, had also told the court Mr Lambert was perfectly sharp at the time and knew exactly what he was doing. Mr Lambert had never become mentally incapable in her view and “was appreciative for what Tony had done for him”, she said.