James Dinsdale was an accountant who died of cancer at the age of 55 leaving a property portfolio estimated to be worth £1.8m. He married his second wife, Margaret, in Las Vegas in 2017 following a three-year relationship. As far as she was aware, he had divorced his previous wife Dr Victoria Fowell some years previously.

Mr Dinsdale died intestate, i.e. without having made a will.

Margaret Dinsdale discovered after his death that her husband had not, in fact, divorced his first wife and that her marriage was void – had no legal effect – because it was bigamous.

This meant that Margaret would inherit nothing under the intestacy rules, so she brought a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. A key issue before the High Court in Dinsdale v Fowell (2025) was whether Margaret could be treated as a spouse under section 25(4) of the 1975 Act, even though her marriage was void. This mattered because the statutory test for reasonable financial provision is more favourable to a spouse than to applicants in other categories.

Fortunately for Margaret, the court found that because she had entered the marriage in good faith, she should be given the status of a spouse. Less fortunately, she is now locked in a battle with her late husband’s first wife and his son, who inherited the estate under the intestacy rules. The court has been told by Dr Fowell’s barrister that the estate is likely to be “in practice negative” because the properties in the portfolio had been overvalued and there were significant debts and liabilities.

The case illustrates two important points: a person may be eligible to claim even where the deceased died without a will, and in limited circumstances someone whose marriage was void may still be treated as a spouse under the 1975 Act.

For over 50 years, the Inheritance Act has helped to right wrongs done to individuals who have either not inherited anything, or not enough to be described as ‘reasonable financial provision’  from the estate of someone who has died.

A surviving spouse benefits from a more favourable standard of provision than applicants in other categories. However, the strength and value of any claim will depend on the individual circumstances. Other eligible applicants include:

• Civil partners
• Children (including adult children and those ‘treated as a child of the family’)
• Financial dependents
• Cohabitees (who lived with the deceased for at least 2 years)
• Former spouses or civil partners (if they have not remarried)

A claim will usually need to be issued within six months of the date on which a Grant of Representation is issued. Anyone considering a claim should therefore seek specialist advice promptly, particularly because permission may be required to bring a claim after that deadline.

If you are considering a claim, we can help. Call us on 0800 860 62 65 or email on info@ridleyandhall.co.uk