Jamaican Father Cuts Daughter Out Of His Will For Having A Baby By A White Man But Judge Overrides H

[h1]  Jamaican Father Cuts Daughter Out Of His Will For Having A Baby By A White Man But Judge Overrides His “Racist” Wishes[/h1][h2]A Canada woman who was cut out of her Jamaican father’s will after having a baby with a white man will now have her inheritance restored thanks to a judge who recently deemed the will “racist” and invalid.[/h2]
via National Post Canada

A Newmarket, Ont., judge made legal history this week by overturning a man’s last will and testament because his deathbed pleas were overtly racist.

Judge C.A. Gilmore overturned Jamaican-born Rector Emanuel (Eric) Spence’s will, because he had disinherited a daughter who gave birth to a white man’s child.

It is the first known example of a judge nullifying an entire will on the grounds that the motivations of the dead offended “public policy.”

Mr. Spence, who died alone in 2013, disowned his daughter when he found out she was carrying the infant. Instead, he left $400,000 to another daughter whom he barely knew in the U.K., largely out of anger and spite.

The court documents show that Mr. Spence and his daughter, Verolin, had an excellent relationship until 2002.

Then, according to the ruling:

“Verolin’s relationship with her father came to a dramatic end. She told her father that she was pregnant and that the father of her child was Caucasian. Her father exclaimed that he was ashamed of Verolin and from that point onwards, the deceased restricted his communication with her … He would not allow a white man’s child in his house.”

Sad that this father would spend the last 11 years of his life disowning his daughter whom he was previously close to just because she choose to have a child with a man outside of her race. Kudos to this judge for doing what he could to make things right. Do you agree with the judge’s decision?

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 The ruling has been declared fascinating by several lawyers who study and specialize in estate law. Courts obviously do not hold up wills that grant assets on the condition that heirs do something illegal to obtain them — but being a racist isn’t illegal.

Previous precedents have also overruled wills that tried to grant posthumous gifts to entities that judges have deemed contrary to “public policy,” as well. Last year, for example, a New Brunswick court violated the will of coin collector Robert McCorkill, who bequeathed his fortune to a West-Virginia neo-Nazi group.

What makes this week’s ruling even more extraordinary is that Mr. Spence didn’t explicitly disinherit his daughter on racial grounds in his will; he merely said he chose not to leave her his estate because the two had stopped communicating, which was objectively true.

Verolin Spence’s lawyer, Michael Deverett, won the case by bringing in a family friend to testify to Mr. Spence’s ulterior motives.

“You had better make sure you’re on side with the rules of the court and with public policy,” Mr. Deverett said of the ruling. “Otherwise, you’re assuming that the court will sanction racist conduct, and why would the court do that?”

The judge’s ruling describes a lonely man prone to fits of anger and abusive behaviour so intense that aid agencies stopped sending people to help him with his needs. He died of a stroke in 2013. Neither daughter attended his funeral.

Mr. Spence’s last will, signed on 2010, granted his assets to his eldest daughter, Donna, even though the two were estranged. Donna still lives in the U.K. and has made no appearances in relation to the proceedings.

On Tuesday, the judge wrote: “It is clear and uncontradicted, in my view, that the reason for disinheriting Verolin, as articulated by the deceased, was one based on a clearly stated racist principle. Does it offend public policy that the deceased’s other daughter, Donna, should receive the entire estate simply because her children were fathered by a black man? That, in my view, offends not only human sensibilities but also public policy.”

Judge Gilmore divided Mr. Spence’s estate between the two daughters.

Suzana Popovic-Montag, a managing partner at Hull & Hull LLP in Toronto who specializes in estate and trust law, said this ruling may “open the floodgates,” on similar challenges.

“We’re imposing our personal feelings and emotions and morals on other peoples’ decisions and that’s where people aren’t comfortable,” she said.

Because Donna Spence has so far been unwilling to participate in the proceedings, it’s unlikely the ruling will ever be challenged.

“That means we have binding precedent here in Ontario that says you can do this. The question is how are people going to use this?” Ms. Popovic-Montag asked.

Howard Black, an adjunct professor at Osgoode Law School in Toronto, said the ruling raises questions about the supposed supremacy of the last will and testament. ‘‘To what extent will [other lawyers] take this decision and try to apply it in other circumstances. How broadly will the court take this decision and apply it in other cases?”

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Zyzz said:

Load of crap

It's his money he should be able to do whatever he wants

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bamez said:

Black people can't be racist

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TORONTO -- Even in death, you might not have the last word: especially if you’re a bigot.

When Eric Spence died two years ago, with no family by the curmudgeon’s bedside, the Jamaican-born man left a last will and testament that disinherited the daughter he raised and left all his worldly belongings to the daughter he hadn’t seen in more than 30 years.

“I specifically bequeath nothing to my daughter, Verolin Spence, as she has had no communication with me for several years and has shown no interest in me as her father,” the spiteful 71-year-old Maple widower wrote in his will.

But in reality, that wasn’t the real reason he cut Verolin out of his will: He was angry that she had given birth to a white man’s child.

“In about September 2002, my relationship with my father came crashing down,” recalled Verolin Spence, 51, in a court affidavit. “That is the time when I told my father that I was pregnant. When he found out that the father of my child-to-be was white, my father told me that he was ashamed of me.”

From that moment on, she said he refused to return her phone calls and wanted nothing to do with her or her son.

In a rare judgment released Tuesday, a Superior Court judge in Newmarket set aside Spence’s will and divided his $400,000 estate equally between his two daughters. “It is clear and uncontradicted, in my view, that the reason for disinheriting Verolin, as articulated by the deceased, was one based on a clearly stated racist principle,” ruled Justice C.A. Gilmore.

“Does it offend public policy that the deceased’s other daughter, Donna, should receive the entire estate simply because her children were fathered by a black man? That, in my view, offends not only human sensibilities but also public policy.”

The judge cited last June’s McCorkill decision where a judge voided the will of a New Brunswick man because leaving his possessions to an American neo-Nazi group violated “public policy” and Canadian hate laws.

It was a controversial ruling now under appeal — should the courts be allowed to overturn a man’s last wishes, even if they are heinous ones?

Until they had that falling out in 2002, Spence had promised everything to his treasured Verolin.

After moving from Jamaica to London, Eng., he had two daughters with the same woman. The couple split when the girls were toddlers and each took a child, with Verolin going to live with Spence. He decided to immigrate to Canada in 1979 and she joined him after completing high school. His second daughter remained in the U.K. and he never saw her again.

Over the next decade, he supported Verolin financially as she pursued a degree at York University, post-graduate work in London and a law degree in New York. He’d often tell her how proud he was that she was the first Spence to graduate from university, she said.

That all ended when she became pregnant by a man who wasn’t black. Furious, Spence wrote her out of the will and left everything to the daughter he barely knew in England.

Because he didn’t outline the real reason for disinheriting her, the judge said Spence’s will would have had to stand if not for the compelling and uncontradicted evidence from the only friend he seemed to have.

Imogene Parchment was best friends with Spence’s late wife Norma. In her affidavit, she said Spence told her many times that he had no further use for Verolin and her “bastard white son” and that he’d changed his will as a result.

Parchment described Spence as difficult and demanding, with an explosive temper. When he was dying in hospital, with no one else at his side, she urged him to reconcile with Verolin. He refused and “went into a rage, banging his fists on the table.”

From the grave, he was determined to punish his daughter for stepping outside her race.

But a court has decided otherwise. Verolin’s lawyer, Michael Deverett, said it was a “painful process” for his client but she’s pleased with the outcome. And the message is clear.

“People should know that if you’re going to make a will that discriminates on the basis of race or is contrary to public policy, beware the courts may not be willing to enforce it.”

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nawghtyhare said:

Pics of Jamaican woman

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Hand2HandKing said:

 
i cant imagine the racism and hate he must have experienced in his life at the hands of white people, only to have his life's work handed over to a white man 

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mALiZ said:

Its wrong no matter what race he is. Racist is racist.

Dude is a bigot and no better than the average white bigot either.

BUT it is his money and if those are his wishes. They should follow through with them.

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Mark Antony said:

Op knows what he's doing here. I don't think the judge is wrong either, that's some foul **** to do to your child. But imagine how much of the reverse has been brushed off as "that's just how it is".

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Tr1ll said:

mALiZ said:

Its wrong no matter what race he is. Racist is racist.

Dude is a bigot and no better than the average white bigot either.

BUT it is his money and if those are his wishes. They should follow through with them.

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The thing is doe, no one ever acutally said it was because of the white guy.

The chick just played the judge to get her money.

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Hand2HandKing said:

Mark Antony said:

Op knows what he's doing here. I don't think the judge is wrong either, that's some foul **** to do to your child. But imagine how much of the reverse has been brushed off as "that's just how it is".

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it aint the judges responsibility to decide how/what his his child should be treated like

or read that man's mind and decide that no, this is the real reason, instead of what he said in the will

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Based Jesus said:

 

Hand2HandKing said:

 
i cant imagine the racism and hate he must have experienced in his life at the hands of white people, only to have his life's work handed over to a white man 

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Wait what?

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