Cousins win battle for fortune after heir hunters investigate grandad’s mysterious ‘romantic life’
Two cousins have won a lawsuit for more than £2 million of a bachelor multimillionaire’s unclaimed fortune after being pursued by heir hunters investigating their grandfather’s mysterious “romantic life”.
McDonald Noel was born in Trinidad and, after emigrating to London in 1960, died a wealthy man in 2018 at the age of 84, leaving behind a gross estate of £2.7 million, including his £1.5 million home in Kensington, London.
However, the unmarried McDonald had no children and left no will; This meant that his millions were unclaimed and ready to go to the government until heir hunters stepped in.
They tracked down potential relatives in the UK and the Caribbean, but controversy later broke out over which of them was the deceased multimillionaire’s actual blood relative.
The Supreme Court case revolved around the complicated love life of McDonald’s father, Stanley Dorant, with all four families claiming descent from him.
Now judge Master Katherine McQuail, who was asked to conduct a rare legal “consanguineous inquiry” and decide who inherits, has handed the victory to cousins Shaka and Desiree Dorant after ruling that their fathers were also sons of Stanley and half-siblings of the late McDonald.
The court heard at a hearing in the case last year that McDonald Noel, a shopkeeper and property tycoon, died in London in April 2018 without a will and without a spouse or children.
He left behind a fortune of over £2 million, including his £1.5 million home in Batoum Gardens, Kensington.
The potential size of his estate has attracted interest from heir hunters in the UK and the Caribbean who have searched his family tree for his closest living relatives but found a tangled web of genealogy.
McDonald was born in Trinidad in 1934 to father Stanley Dorant and mother Neutrice Dorant; Neutrice already had another child, Stella, born the previous year.
Originally from Barbados, Stanley later had another son, Francis, with Barbadian Clementina Forde, whom he married in 1939 after she joined him in Trinidad following Neutrice’s death in 1938.
Clementina already had two sons, Clyde and St Clair Dorant, when she moved to Stanley and married.
In court, St Clair’s children, represented by her daughter Desiree Dorant, and Clyde’s grandchildren, represented by his grandson Tyler Dorant, claimed that they too were descendants of Stanley, whom they said was St Clair and Clyde’s father during their visit to Barbados.
Francis’ son Shaka also claimed a share of the millions, but Stella’s son Gerard Burton said he should potentially get the share, insisting that his mother Stella was also Stanley’s child and that McDonald was his full sister rather than his half-sister.
Daniel Burton, on behalf of Desiree and her siblings, told the judge: “It is the romantic life of McDonald’s father, Stanley, that is at the heart of the genealogical questions that arise in this case.
“It was a firm of inheritance hunters called Hoopers who began identifying possible beneficiaries of the McDonald’s inheritance.
“Stanley was born in Barbados in 1906 and died in Trinidad in 1968. Documentary records show that he traveled between Trinidad and Barbados and had children on each island.”
He told the judge that documentary evidence showed Stanley and Clementina were from the same area and knew each other before they left Barbados for Trinidad.
“The questions before the court at this hearing are how many children Stanley fathered, who he was with, and who they were.”
Aidan Briggs, on behalf of Francis’ son Shaka, told the judge that even if Stanley fathered all the children, it should not be assumed they were his.
He said Stanley lived in a society where extramarital affairs were common and there was a “tendency for mothers to attribute paternity to men, especially for financial reasons”; “This is called ‘giving a man a coat’ in the British Caribbean.”
“It’s important not to apply middle-class British norms to a Caribbean setting,” he said.
Making his decision, Master McQuail said: “I am asked to determine the paternity of children born in the 1930s. “As there are no conclusive DNA results there can be no certainty and so I must do the best I can on the available evidence.
“Gerard, Tyler and Desiree each have the burden of proving that their respective parents or grandparents were Stanley’s child. If I am not satisfied with the evidence, then the relationship has not been proven.”
“Just because it cannot be determined who else the father of a particular child might be does not mean that I should assume it is Stanley.
“As for Francis, Shaka exploits the assumption that Francis was born during Stanley and Clementina’s marriage and that he is Stanley’s child because both parents’ names are on Francis’ birth certificate.
“I have concluded that Francis is Stanley and Clementina’s child.
“There is no legal presumption involving St Clair. There is no evidence that he is considered the child of Stanley of St Clair,” the judge said, but went on to declare that he was likely Stanley’s child because of evidence that he had visited St Clair’s mother, Clementina, in Barbados nine months before his birth.
“The relevant passenger list shows that Stanley departed from Port of Spain Trinidad for Barbados on 23 December 1935, most likely arriving in Barbados the following day.
“St Clair was born in Barbados on 30 September 1936, 282 days or 40 weeks and three days later.
“I conclude that Stanley and Clementina had a relationship that predated Clementina’s arrival in Trinidad in 1939. This, combined with the fact that Stanley and Clementina lived together in Barbados around Christmas/New Year 1935/1936 and St Clair’s date of birth, makes it more likely than not that Stanley was St Clair’s father,” he said.
But he went on to rule against the claims of Clyde and Stella’s grandchildren.
The judge said: “Clyde’s situation is much less clear than St Clair’s. “There is no evidence that Stanley was in Barbados at the time of Clyde’s birth.
“In the absence of evidence that Stanley and Clementina were living in the same place at the relevant time, in order to conclude that Stanley was Clyde’s father, an inference must be drawn from the known facts that Clementina was incapable of having children by anyone other than Stanley in early January 1933.
“There is no material from which such an inference can be reliably made.
“On the balance of probabilities, I cannot conclude that Stanley is Clyde’s father.”
Regarding Stella, he said the dates did not line up as in St Clair’s case, although there was evidence that Stanley had visited her before her birth.
“There is no documentary evidence that Stanley was in Trinidad before July 4, 1932, and there is no record of Neutrice traveling to Barbados. Stella was born in Trinidad on March 10, 1933, to Neutrice.
“Assuming Stanley has ‘S Durant’ on the relevant passenger list, his arrival in Trinidad was only 35 weeks and four days before Stella’s due date.
“Even if Stella had become pregnant immediately after Stanley’s arrival in Trinidad, her birth would have been premature, which is highly unlikely in the absence of other evidence.
“I am not satisfied considering the possibility that Stella is Stanley’s child.
“I have concluded that the only biological children of Stanley are McDonald, St Clair and Francis. Accordingly, I will rule that the distribution of the estate should be between McDonald’s half-siblings.”
The court heard Shaka was Stanley’s only grandchild after Francis, but Desiree had four siblings.
