Our father made a will with a renowned executor. After his death, the executor of the will, called all three legal heirs of the deceased and read the provisions of the will. Upon reading the will, the third legal heir came to know that he is not at all beneficiary of the will and hence refused to give consent to the executor for distribution of the assets among the remaining two legal heirs.He also challenged the will itself.
The executor preferred to go to the court of law to obtain a probate order. The court called all three legal heirs to put their say but the third non beneficiary legal heir never turned-up in the court. Ultimately the decision was made ex-parte and the court issued a probate order.
On the basis of probate order, the executor ultimately, distributed an amount among the remaining two legal heirs.
Because of third legal heir's non consent; the executor had to obtain probate by expending Rs.90,000 towards court fee, lawyer's fee etc. which was ultimately deducted from the will proceeds, vis-a-vis there is a loss of interest portion of Rs.1,10,000 approx. for the period from reading the will till the date of obtaining a probate.
We, both the beneficiaries, have suffered from loss of Rs.2,00,000(90,000+1,10,000) only because of non consent/non-cooperation of third legal heir.
Do we have any right to claim the damages from third non beneficiary legal heir ? as it seems that the third non beneficiary legal heir had no intention to put her say on the will but only to delay its distribution
