Lovechild wins right to £14m fortune after legal battle with brother
Brothers Edward and Jonathan Marcus were locked in a legal battle following the revelation that Edward was the result of an affair between his mother, Patricia, and lawyer Sydney Glossop.
Jonathan's lawyers argued that it was wrong to let Edward, a solicitor, share the inheritance put aside by their father Stuart Marcus when he was not his biological son.
But Jonathan's case was thrown out this week after High Court judge Sir Anthony Mann ruled that, because Stuart had thought Edward was his true son and intended him to benefit, he should do so.
Stuart started out selling kits for wooden doll houses above a small toy shop in east London, ending up with a string of companies valued at £14.5 million before he died.
Edward, 47, and Jonathan, 43, worked for the company, with Jonathan heading successful commercial operations in Germany.
Before his death in February 2020, Stuart, 86, arranged for 43 per cent of the business that made up his fortune to be put into a family trust for the benefit of his 'children... and their spouses'.
But in 2023, Jonathan discovered that Stuart was not Edward's biological father and was instead the result of a one-night stand.
Patricia, the brothers' mother, had previously confided in Edward that he was not Stuart's son during a confidential chat 14 years ago.
Jonathan commissioned DNA evidence to back his claim over the inheritance, with his representative Thomas Braithwaite insisting that the word 'children' in the document meant related to biology and so could not include Edward.
But clearing the way for Edward to share in the trust, Sir Anthony said Stuart had considered both boys to be his biological sons and treated them as such.
Sir Anthony said: 'He would naturally have described them as his biological children and as far as he and everyone else was concerned – apart from his wife and possibly Edward's father – that is exactly what they were... In that context Stuart chose to use a word – 'children' – which, in the real world, described both Edward and Jonathan perfectly.
'This settlement was intended to operate in the real world, and in that real world – Stuart's real world in particular – Edward was Stuart's child.
'Edward was treated for practical, familial and all other purposes as a biological child, nothwithstanding the true fact that he was not.
'Stuart's intention is exactly the same....he intended the word to include Edward.'
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