Judge Forces Woman Out of Home

A 79-year-old woman will be forced out of her £1.2 million home after a judge ruled that she cannot share it with the grown-up son she despises. 

Elizabeth Ashley had changed the locks on her home in Wandsworth in order to keep out her son, Mitchim.  However, Judge Diana Faber ruled she had “unlawfully excluded” him from the house that he had mostly paid for and that he half owned.  Judge Faber said the only solution was to force Mrs. Ashley to sell and split the profits with her son. 

Judge Faber said Mr. Ashley made an “unpleasant tactical attempt” to question his mother’s mental health and he was “less than wholly reliable as a witness,” but that his mother had “told the court substantially more untruths than he did” and her account of events had been “thoroughly undermined.”  The judge established a timetable for estate agents to visit the house and removers to repossess Mr. Ashley’s belongings.

See Paul Cheston, Pensioner Forced to Quit £1.2m Home in Feud With Her Son, London Evening Standard, Dec. 16, 2014.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.