A glamorous estate agent who married a toothless millionaire hermit 25
years her senior has been denied any claim to his estate after a court
ruling.
Sandrine Devillard met ‘mountain man’ Marcel Amphoux, when she tried to
buy five shepherd’s huts he owned close to exclusive ski resort Serre
Chevalier in the French Alps which were said to be worth millions.The
unlikely pair began a romance but villagers in Puy-Saint-Pierre,
Hautes-Alpes, suspected the estate agent was trying to manipulate
Marcel.
When the couple tied the knot in September 2011 the villagers turned out to heckle the ceremony.
Sandrine spent most of her time in Paris, looking after her four
businesses while her mountain man lover lived in a mountain hut without
electricity or running water.A year after their wedding Marcel, who was
nicknamed the hermit of the Alps, died in a mysterious car accident -
apparently leaving his estate to his widow.
The driver and another passenger, who both survived, were friends of his wife. The driver was later acquitted of manslaughter.
At Marcel’s funeral the Alpine village turned out en masse and in his
sermon the parish priest said the mountain man had been treated like a
“balance sheet, not a person”.
Sandrine who was dressed in black tried to hurl herself into his grave.
Villagers said she told tenants they were being evicted and that the huts were hers.
But in 2013 the hermit’s will, which he had scribbled on the back of an
envelope, came to light revealing he had left the shepherd’s huts to
their local tenants while the rest of Marcel’s property was to go to a
female cousin leaving Sandrine with nothing.His widow challenged the
will claiming it was not his hand-writing and that he had been the
victim of “abuse of trust”.
On December 12 the public prosecutor announced that her claims had been quashed.
According to French media Prosecutor Raphael Balland said that handwriting experts had concluded that “the will is by his hand”.
He added: “For there to be abuse of weakness, one must first prove weakness. There is no evidence to prove this.”
Culled from Daily Mirror
No comments:
Post a Comment
I like knowing my fans better. Kindly drop your comment using your name/url/Google accounts and not as Anonymous. Thanks for your understanding.