The sons of an actor who starred alongside Richard Attenborough in Agatha Christie’s play ‘Mousetrap’ have won an inheritance fight after he cut them out of his will.
Peter Bridgmont, who died aged 90 in 2019, was a stage and screen actor who appeared in ITV ’s groundbreaking police series Z-Cars in the 1960s.
He also went on to form a mime troupe and, as a voice coach, taught acting great Sir Mark Rylance.
Mr Bridgmont and wife Barbara had three sons – Richard, Andrew and Nicholas – but when she died in 2008 he left his entire fortune to his live-in carer and friend Frances Zammit.
However, the case went to court after son Richard sued Ms Zammit, with his brothers supporting him in the witness box, claiming they were entitled to a pay out.
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It emerged Mrs Bridgmont had wished to leave something to her sons when she died following the discovery of a “bombshell” will.
In it, she had left her sons a pay out between them, equal to the inheritance tax threshold of the time.
Upon hearing this, Judge Simon Monty QC ruled in the sons' favour, ordering the sale of their parents' former home - where Ms Zammit currently lives - in order to hand the brothers £312,000 between them.
He said they were entitled to the money as they had not received the inheritance their mum had left them on her own death, and it would have to come from her half share of the couple's west London home.
The decision means Ms Zammit, who has been living in the flat since 2010, will now have to move out so it can be sold.
Ms Zammit fought the claim, arguing that the brothers had got what they were due when their dad gave them each £120,000 after their mum's death.
But the judge found the money had been “a gift” from father to sons which failed to take into account the fact Mrs Bridgmont had owned half of the flat in Ealing High Street, west London.
In his ruling, the judge said: “It is clear – and I so find – that there was no connection between the payments of £120,000 and Barbara’s legacy, and there was no agreement by Richard, Andrew and Nicholas, or any of them, to vary Barbara’s will.
"Richard Bridgmont is entitled to the declaration sought in respect of the payments, that they were gifts and were not made in satisfaction of Barbara’s legacy.”
Son Richard, 63, told the court: “I was naturally hopeful that this might result in a fairer outcome in terms of the inheritance, as prior to seeing the will I had assumed all of the family money was in Dad’s estate and that Frances would inherit in the way Dad had set out.
“The arrival of Mum's will was a significant change. It seemed to me it felt like not only the possibility of a financially fair outcome, but also a feeling that Mum had stepped in to rectify things.
"Her voice was not always sufficiently heard in my view and this seemed therefore to be a positive development.”
Once sold the flat could now fetch as much as £750,000 in today’s money.
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