A family feud involving millions

has just ended in the courts here. The judge managed an almost Solomon like judgment at the end by telling all the parties they had to pay their own costs. I imagine those are substantial. Quite possibly the costs run into millions of dollars. It has also taken years. While it might not quite be Jarndyce v Jarndyce it has not been much better.

I have been thinking about this. Succession Law was a compulsory subject in Law school and one of the more interesting subjects at that. There were cases there which could well have been turned into best selling novels and blockbuster films.  What about the will written on a banana skin? Mmm... I won't go there.

I remember one of the university staff who had recently lost his father. His father was very elderly and had not been in good health but we were still concerned of course. We had been told there would be no funeral...and we soon found out why. His son came in clutching an envelope. The envelope, in his father's writing, was labelled, "Dad's funeral arrangements." Inside it was money and the words, "Go out and celebrate the fact the silly old bugger's dead."  The family went out for a meal and celebrated his life.

Wills seem to bring out the worst in most families. Everyone wants something that someone else believes should be theirs. The Senior Cat wisely informed us very clearly who was to have what of his actual possessions. I believe the three of us who are slowly dealing with his things would have done it all much the same way. Much of it was obvious. Middle Cat and I had no use for his workshop machinery. Brother Cat does have a use. He has taken it and now we are getting small things he has made using that machinery and some of the timber. The Senior Cat's great grandchildren are learning to use some of the tools - something else he always hoped for.

We have shared the books. Yes, the Senior Cat left me his books to dispose of as I saw fit. Brother Cat wanted some I knew Middle Cat would not want. Middle Cat has taken some I thought she would want but left others. We asked the Black Cat who flatly refused to have anything to do with any actual objects he had left. Yes, there is the difficult one, the one making difficulties. There is nothing we can do about the fact that her portion is in trust because the Senior Cat did not trust her with a lump sum.

And then I thought a little more. A change of government is a little like a death in the family. The incoming government is inheriting from the previous government. If the previous government has been fiscally responsible there will be money there. It should not be frittered away. Of course the present government will try to say that the previous government has not been fiscally responsible, that the situation is "far worse" than they expected. It is the perfect excuse for breaking election promises. 

I wonder what the incoming party would do if they knew they and not the taxpayer had to pay for broken election promises.