Phillipina (sp) Nurse inherits £21 million from reclusive copper mining heiress

[웃 910]

Nurse inherits £21 million from reclusive copper mining heiress

A reclusive copper mining heiress who died aged 104 has left $34 million (£21 million) of her estate to a nurse from New York who was randomly assigned to care for her - while her relatives will get nothing

Hadassah Peri was sent to look after Huguette Clark by a nursing agency in 1991, and eventually became her "friend and loyal companion," spending more time with her than anyone else, according to a will filed in a Manhattan court.

Miss Clark, who inherited an estimated half-billion dollars in 1927, died last month, almost 50 years after she retreated to her sprawling New York townhouse, later moving into city hospitals in secret. No photographs of her, or substantial details of her life, from beyond 1930 are known to exist.

Mrs Peri, a 61-year-old immigrant from the Philippines, will now receive a large chunk of Miss Clark's $400 million (£250 million) legacy – as well as her collection of dolls, dolls' houses and dolls' clothes.

Before she died, Miss Clark also bought Mrs Peri at least four properties – a pair of $350,000 (£220,000) flats near Park Avenue for her children to use, a $700,000 (£438,000) house for visitors near her own in Brooklyn, and a $500,000 (£312,000) holiday home in New Jersey.

In a statement released through her lawyers, Mrs Peri said she was "awed at the generosity Madame Clark has shown me and my family, and eternally grateful".

"I saw her virtually every day for the 20 years," she said. "I was her private duty nurse but also her close friend. I knew her as a kind and generous person, with whom I shared many wonderful moments and whom I loved very much I am profoundly sad at her passing.

"Just as Madame Clark demonstrated kindness toward others in her actions, so, too, will I and my family devote a substantial portion of this bequest toward making the world a better place for all people."

Most of Miss Clark's fortune was set aside for the establishment of an arts foundation at her 24-acre estate in Santa Barbara, California, which she had not visited in 50 years when she died. She also owned a castle in Connecticut.

About $14 million (£9 million) went to her god-daughter and $1 million (£620,000) to her lawyer and accountant, whom she appointed as executors, and whose management of her affairs has come under intense scrutiny.

No direct relations of Miss Clark – the daughter of Senator William Clark of Montana, once the second richest man in the US – were left any money. Some have been fighting to wrest control of the estate from the lawyer, Wallace Bock, and the accountant, Irving Kamsler, a convicted sex offender.

A group of half-nieces and half-nephews last year asked a New York court to remove the pair following allegations aired in New York media. A paralegal who worked for Mr Bock alleged he and Mr Kamsler attempted to pressure Miss Clark into signing a will. Both are part of an ongoing investigation by New York prosecutors.

Mr Bock said that he acted "appropriately, professionally and consistent with her wishes".

Miss Clark, who had no children, spent her final years in New York's Beth Israel hospital under the false name of Harriet Chase, and with bogus next-of-kin listed in hospital records. Her will stated that she "intentionally" excluded her relatives, "having had minimal contacts with them over the years".

Thomas Goldberg, a lawyer for the relatives, declined to comment. A man at the Washington home of Karine McCall, one of the half-nieces, said: "She doesn't want to make any comment".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8594586/Nurse-inherits-21-million-from-reclusive-copper-mining-heiress.html

[Psoas10 17]

I read that story, but did not say the nurse was a Filipina. Well good for her for being so caring and nice to that heiress. I guess the nurse can retire, support her family now.

[ezzie 7]

I read that in Yahoo news, but I didn't see that the nurse was from the Philippines.

Thank God, someone recognized the hard work of one of our kababayans..