Jack Stern, the younger son, who was still a minor when Lord Michelham died, appealed against an assessment to super-tax his income from his grandfather's and father's estate until he reached majority. The case includes some references to the legal proceedings around Lord Michelham's will, stating that "on the 22nd July, 1919, a settlement between the parties was come to, the terms of which were sanctioned and approved by the Court". Jack Stern's case and the judgement give interesting insight into some aspects of the Michelham fortune. For anyone who's interested, here's the link. But Beth is right, we're far from the board's topic here. So let's try to bring that somehow back on topic: The executors of Lord Michelham's second will were – apart from Boy Capel and Lady Michelham who were added as co-executors later – 1) Sir David Salomons, Lord Michelham's brother-in-law, the husband of his younger sister Laura Julia de Stern, 2) Maurice Stern, the son of Lord Michelham's first cousin Edgar-Salomon Stern, director of the French branch of the banking house, and 3) Sir Albert Stern, the son of James Julius Stern, another first cousin of Lord Michelham, and his wife Lucie. Lucie Stern was born Lucie Biedermann in Vienna in 1850, the daughter of Austrian court jeweller Joseph Biedermann. We had a thread on the Biedermann family earlier this year: https://mb.boardhost.com/historyroyaljewels/msg/1547330901.html
This will was replaced by a second will, dated September 1918 and initiated by the Stern family without the knowledge of Lady Michelham. This second testament left Aimée only the content of their houses and a fixed income. Sir Albert Stern, Mr. Maurice Stern and Sir David Salomons were named as the executors, who later that year made Boy Capel co-executor.
Capel then informed Lady Michelham about this second testament, and she managed to make her husband sign a codicil in January 1919 (other sources say December 1918), just before his death, which again made her executor of his estate until their sons reached the age of thirty.
In exchange for Boy Capel's help his sister's marriage with Lord and Lady Michelham's elder son was arranged and very favourable financial provisions for Berthe Capel were made.
I think the article in the Dundee Courier is misleading insofar, as it summarizes the will dated September 1918 and the codicil dated January 1919 and doesn't distinguish their opposing intentions, i.e. the effort of the Stern family to exclude Aimée from executorship and her successful attempt to regain it.
The new testament and the codicil deprived Captain Cohn of his position and income as an executor of Lord Michelham's estate, and apparently Aimée also found her husband's earlier testament more beneficial. When Captain Cohn propounded the first will from 1911 and contested the second will from 1918 on behalf of the Dowager Lady Michelham under the allegation that Baron Michelham had been in bad health for the last months of his life and not in a condition to understand business matters, the financial provisions for the new Lady Michelham signed by Lord Michelham only a few days before his death necessarily were also at stake. That's why Mr. Jocelyn Brandon, trustee under Berthe Capel's marriage settlement, brought action. And that's why the article concluded that this minor action "may have an important bearing on the main issue, as the success of Mr. Brandon might be held to involve not only the validity of the marriage settlement, but of the second will."
I didn't know that the Dowager Lady Michelham remarried only a few months before her death. That she left just over half a million pounds sterling seems an evidence that the majority of Lord Michelham's fortune was inherited by his sons.
572
Responses
« Back to index | View thread »