NEWS

Secret lover awarded money from farmer's estate
By Staff Reporter

The secret live-in lover of a bachelor farmer has been awarded a quarter-of-a-million pounds from his estate. Seamus Kane, who worked a 490-acre holding on the Ballyvennaught Road, near Ballycastle in County Antrim, died in 2004 without leaving a will. He did promise Anne Mulholland, however, that she would always have a roof over her head, the Belfast High Court was told. Ms Mulholland, who began her relationship with Mr Kane when she was just 16 and he was in his early 40s, took the legal action against the farmer's sister, Maureen, and brother John, who were the beneficiaries of the estate. The court was told the now 49-year-old woman had spent almost 30 years tending to the elderly farmer. Mr Justice Deeny, in his ruling, said Mr Kane had created an expectation by Ms Mulholland that she would have a house and a few acres of land when he died. He said: “In committing herself to that relationship she effectively debarred herself from prospects of marriage or lifelong partnership with other men in the district, to her own detriment. “I consider that if Seamus Kane in his own lifetime had cast her out in her 40s without honouring the promises he had made that would have been an unconscionable act condemned by all right thinking persons. “I consider that would be the case whether they were judging the matter by contemporary or more traditional moral values.” In awarding her £250,000, the judge said it was a just and equitable figure with which to purchase a house and a few acres of land in the north Antrim area. Mr Kane's estate has been valued at more than £800,000, though the judge said he was prepared to hear from the family if this figure was disputed. The couple had kept their relationship secretive, including hiding it from Mr Kane's sister, as family and friends would have considered them as "living in sin," the judge said.

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September 3rd 2009
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