Dying millionaire's new will 'influenced by her ex-husband'

THE former husband of a millionaire businesswoman has been accused of taking advantage of her condition in the days before she died to have her rewrite her will.

Deirdre Romanes left about 2 million to her sister in a will drawn up some years ago, but she claims she could end up with nothing under the new will.

The revised document - drawn up eight days before Mrs Romanes died - provides for up to 3m to be given to Dunfermline Press, of which Iain Romanes is a director.

Mrs Romanes' sister, Elizabeth Smyth, won an interim interdict against the executors of the will - two serving directors and one former director of Dunfermline Press - to stop them selling two properties in Edinburgh's New Town worth more than 2m.

The three executors - William Henderson, Angus Donald MacDonald, and John Rafferty - then appealed to have the interim interdict recalled.

That appeal was heard by Lords Reed, Hardie and Wheatley, and the decision was announced yesterday. Pending a judgment in the case, an order has been granted to Mrs Smyth to prevent the executors selling the properties. In her court action to try to have the original will reinstated, Mrs Smyth alleges that Mr Romanes and/or other directors of the company persuaded Mrs Romanes to make the changes while she was "weak and facile".

Mrs Romanes died at the age of 60 in May last year. The majority shareholder and chief executive of Dunfermline Press, she and Mr Romanes were divorced, but remained friends. She had no children.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh was told that Mrs Romanes's estate had been valued at 4,176,782. It included her home in Heriot Row and another property in Jamaica Street Lane, which were estimated to be worth 2,250,000.

She also owned two houses in Cellardyke, in the East Neuk of Fife. Both were in the village's scenic George Street, and are understood to be worth about 450,000 and 250,000 respectively. However, they were left to other beneficiaries. Her estate also included a 130,000 yacht and more than 1m in a deposit account.

In a will from 2008, Mrs Romanes directed that the two Edinburgh properties be sold and the net proceeds be paid to Mrs Smyth, of Co Meath, Ireland.

However, Mrs Romanes made a new will, dated 9 May last year, directing her executors to pay her sister a legacy of 1m, and to pay 3m into a trust, expressing the wish that it be used to secure the future prospects of the publishing company. The 3m legacy took precedence.

Giving the ruling, Lord Hardie said: "[Mrs Smyth] is apprehensive that, if the estate is distributed in terms of the 2010 will, there will be no funds available to satisfy the legacy to her after the executors have paid the deceased's debts, inheritance tax and the preferential legacy."

The court heard that Mr Romanes, who lives in Monaco, and two of the executors, Mr Henderson and Mr MacDonald, were directors of Dunfermline Press, which had recently recorded losses. Mr Rafferty quit as a director last March.

Mrs Smyth's action aimed to set aside the 2010 will. Lord Hardie said she also had the objective of securing, under the 2008 will, that ownership of the New Town properties should pass to her, rather than being sold.

Lord Hardie said: "We are unable at this stage to conclude that [Mrs Smyth's] case is entirely without merit. It seems to us that it would not be just to allow [the appeal]."