Dorant v Dorant and Another [2025] EWHC 3360 (Ch)
Background
The deceased McDonald Noel emigrated from Trinidad to London in 1960 and died in 2018 unmarried without a will. His estate was worth over £2 million. In accordance with the intestacy rules, the issue of the deceased’s full siblings or half-siblings should be entitled to his estate. Heir hunters Hoopers sought to locate the potential beneficiaries and discovered a complicated family history.
The deceased was born in December 1934 to his parents Stanley and Neutrice Dorant. The possible candidates as other biological children of Stanley were Stella Noel, Clyde Dorant, St Clair Dorant and Francis Dorant. Stella was a child of Neutrice (but not Stanley), whilst Clyde, St Clair and Francis were children of Stanley (but not Neutrice). They all predeceased McDonald.
The son of Francis, Shaka Dorant, issued a claim against one of the daughters of St Clair, Desiree Dorant, and the son of Stella, Gerard Burton for an order that unless Desiree issued and served proceedings setting out her claim to be a beneficiary of McDonald’s estate, Shaka (as the administrator of the estate) shall be entitled to distribute on the footing that the only beneficiaries were Shaka and Gerard.
Decision
In the judgment of the kin inquiry, the Court referred to the relevant law:-
- In a kin enquiry, if a specific relationship is averred by a party, then the burden of proof rests on that party;
- Section 26 of the Family Law Reform Act 1969 provides that the standard of proof required to rebut a presumption of legitimacy/illegitimacy is the balance of probabilities;
- At common law, a child born to a woman during her marriage is presumed to be the child of her husband, even if conceived prior to the date of marriage;
- Section 34 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 provides that an entry or certified copy of an entry in an English register of births and deaths is prima facie evidence of all the facts required by statute to be entered in it; and
- An expert does not supplant the court as the ultimate tribunal of fact and the court is entitled to reject expert evidence if it is inconsistent with other facts found proven.
After evaluating the documentary evidence, witness evidence and non-conclusive DNA results, the Court concluded on the balance of probabilities that Stanley’s only biological children were McDonald, St Clair and Francis. Therefore, McDonald’s estate should be distributed amongst the children of his half-siblings.
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