Court Orders Widow To Pay Her Late-Husband’s Mistress

Anthony Francis Bohm died in 2010 from a heart attack. When he died, he left his entire estate to his estranged wife, Winifred Bohm. The two separated in 1993. In 1996, Mr. Bohm started living with his girlfriend, Dee Morgan. In 1999, they separated after Mr. Bohm refused to divorce his estranged wife. While their relationship ended, they continued to enjoy each other’s company as if their relationship never ended. 

The New South Wales Supreme Court found that while Mr. Bohm ended the relationship with Ms. Morgan he continued treat her as if they were still in a relationship. The court reasoned that “his conduct after that point in time led the plaintiff to believe that there was still a continuous relationship of a lesser intensity than that which existed before.” Because of this continuous relationship, the court ordered Ms. Bohm to pay a “‘legacy'” of $A225,000 from her late-husband’s estate to Ms. Morgan. Associate Justice Richard Macready also ordered the court to pay $A250,000 from Mr. Bohm’s estate.

See NZ Newswire, Widow Ordered To Pay Husband’s Mistress, Yahoo! News, Apr. 21, 2013.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.