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The daughter of late iron ore magnate Michael Wright has issued a wish list of bizarre and extravagant “needs” to increase her claim on his estate.
Michael Wright died in 2012 with an estimated worth of $2.7 billion (as reported by The West Australian; $1.5 according to The Australian), which was built thanks to mining royalties inherited from his father Peter Wright, who was a business partner with Lang Hancock.
Olivia Mead, 19, the youngest child fathered by Wright has lodged claim against the Wright estate that the $3 million trust fund (only to be accessed when she turns 30) was not adequate.
Wright’s other two daughters Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burton have been directors of Wright Prospecting, which in 2013 won a legal dispute against Hancock Prospecting over a 25 per cent stake in the Rhodes Ridge iron ore deposit.
Mead said in the WA Supreme Court on Monday she did not have a close relationship with her father “overall”, but that she visited him at least once a week in 2012 prior to his death in April. She said Wright told her he wanted to leave property for her, but property was not bequeathed to her in the will.
Mead has claimed a number of living expenses and luxury items from her sisters, including a house worth $2.5 million, five pairs of $5000 shoes per year, 20 pairs of $300 shoes each year, $10,000 a year for handbags, $40,000 per year for holidays, $2014 per year to keep a pet axolotyl (Mexican Walking Fish), a Kuhn-Bosendorfer art case piano valued at $1.5 million, a Ritter Royal Flora Aurum bass guitar worth $250,000 (made with 10,000 year-old Siberian Mammoth Ivory and 24 carat gold in lay), and allowances until the age of 96.
“I looked at my needs, how I want to start a family, and what I’d like to do with my life,” Mead told the court.
Wright was married four times in his life, although not to Mead’s mother, Elizabeth Mead.
Wright family lawyer Jane Needham accused mead of attempting to inflate her claim against the will by “thinking of everything you might possibly want and putting it down”.
The trial is expected to last one week.
For the original source of this article, click here: http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/iron-ore-family-embroiled-in-will-dispute