A celebrity wedding planner who used a forged letter to snatch her dead grandfather’s home has been declared bankrupt and had her assets seized in a new legal fight for the family at war over his will.
Relatives of top radiologist Alan Grant – who died in 2019 at the age of 98 – have been ripped apart by years of legal wrangling over his estate.
Kashaya Williams claimed her grandfather gifted her his $900,000 home overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Killcare on the NSW Central Coast.
But her uncle, neuroscientist Professor Seth Grant, and her aunt Tansin, successfully took Ms Williams and her mother Nerez Grant to court in 2020 to recover the property.
The NSW Supreme Court ruled that the crucial letter giving her the home was a fake and that Ms Williams was ‘a knowing participant in a dishonest scheme’.
Three years later though, Ms Williams, 36, still owes her grandfather’s estate $754,543.33 from two court judgements against her in the epic legal battle over his will.
Celebrity wedding planner Kashaya Williams (pictured with ex-husband Evan Williams who had assault charges dropped on mental health grounds in June) has been declared bankrupt and her assets seized after using a forged letter to snatch her dead grandfather’s home
Kashaya received the Killcare home (above) after her mother said she’d received a letter from Dr Alan Grant, requesting she ‘please’ give his property to her
She has now been declared bankrupt, and on Tuesday the Federal Court in Sydney backed a demand by Prof Grant to seize her assets on behalf of his father’s estate.
Ms William runs Sydney wedding business Kashaya & Co, a favourite of big name couples such as AFL star Kieran Jack and Charlotte Goodlet, and Bachelor Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich.
In June, her ex-husband, high profile eastern suburbs real estate agent Evan Williams, 39, pleaded guilty to common assault and intimidation of his son, but the charges were dismissed on mental health grounds.
Ms Williams, from ritzy Darling Point in Sydney’s east, represented herself at the hearing, dressed in a black pencil skirt, black knee-high boots and black cardigan, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail.
She insisted the debt had already been paid from her grandfather’s estate and that her share of that estate would cover it.
But lawyers for Prof Grant said the final carve up of the grandfather’s estate had yet to be settled in the NSW Supreme Court.
They also told the court the total value of her grandfather’s estate had shrunk from Ms Williams’ claims of $2.6million in September to just $900,000 to $1million now.
The Killcare property on the NSW Central Coast has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean (pictured) and is tucked away in bushland
Ms Williams branded the move to bankrupt her an abuse of power to prevent her from defending herself in the legal action over the will in the Supreme Court.
But her pleas were dismissed by the court.
Registrar Alicia Ditton said the debt was owed by Ms Williams and only she could pay it – and the dwindling value of the estate, even if she does get a third of it, would not cover the full amount outstanding.
‘On her own evidence, it has not been paid by her,’ she said. ‘The evidence before me does not establish any abuse of process by the applicant.’
Registrar Ditton ordered the sequestration and appointed trustees to take over her affairs.
The latest blow for Ms Williams comes after the legal wrangle over a 50-word letter that was found to have been forged for her to take possession of the Killcare home.
The NSW Supreme Court heard in 2021 that seven years ago, Ms William’s mother Nerez – Dr Grant’s eldest child – claimed he had handed her a letter about the property.
This is the letter Kashaya’s mother Nerez Grant claimed to have received from her father, radiologist Dr Alan Grant, in 2016. The signature was forged, a court ruled. (Digital mock-up above)
The April 11, 2016 letter purportedly stated: ‘Dear Nerez, I want to give the Killcare house to Kashaya.
‘I want you to live there for the rest of your life. I give you a lifetime tenancy. I will pay for the transfer. Please transfer the property to Kashaya.
‘Thank you for all the care of me.’
The letter was typed except for its final word – Dr Grant’s name, signed Alan, the court judgment said.
Nerez, 67, who had enduring power of attorney over Dr Grant’s estate at the time, transferred the property to her daughter and paid the stamp duty.
I want to give the Killcare house to Kashaya … I will pay for the transfer. Please transfer the property to Kashaya
But Justice John Slattery accepted evidence from a handwriting expert that Alan’s signature was forged.
Dr Grant’s son Seth called evidence from analyst Melanie Holt who said the signature appeared to have been copied from another document.
‘The handwritten name … is not natural writing,’ Ms Holt found. The signature was identical to a previous autograph of Dr Grant’s from years earlier, she said.
The judge accepted evidence that the signature had been photocopied from another document and the letter was fabricated.
Justice Slattery later ruled that Kashaya had obtained the property in a ‘dishonest and fraudulent scheme’ involving herself and her mother.
‘They must have known that this was a fraud on Dr Grant because they were taking his last asset and putting him in a helpless position,’ the judge said in his decision.
However, in follow-up ruling, the judge noted while ‘one or other of Nerez Grant or Kashaya Williams must have been responsible’ for the forged letter, the court has not found which was responsible.
In his decision, the judge said Nerez Grant and daughter Kashaya (right) ‘must have known that this was a fraud on Dr Grant’. Kashaya and her mother lost an appeal in 2021
Clients: Kashaya was the florist for AFL star Kieren Jack (right) and TV reporter wife Charlotte Goodlet’s (left) wedding. They are pictured with fellow TV reporter Julie Snook (far left) and actor partner Hugo Johnstone-Burt (far right) on their special day
Kashaya & Co recently put together this gender reveal party for Bachelor couple Anna Heinrich and Tim Robards (above)
Dr Grant and his late wife Gwynneth were described as a gifted couple – with him practising medicine and her playing violin with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
They built a multi-million dollar fortune during their 70-year marriage which family members had benefited handsomely from.
However, the clan was left ‘deeply scarred’ by ongoing feuds which lingered on even after Mrs Grant died in 2017 and Dr Grant in 2019.
In 2020, Justice Slattery ordered the Killcare property be transferred to Seth Grant, as the administrator of his estate.
But Ms Williams and Nerez Grant appealed. They argued the judge had failed to take into account ‘expert reports’ supporting their case.
A panel of judges dismissed that appeal in 2021, ruling they had failed to identify any expert reports, or refute the handwriting expert’s testimony.
The appeal was dismissed and Nerez and Kashaya were ordered to pay Professor Grant and Tansin’s costs.
A further appeal on family provisions grounds was either dealt with by the trial judge or irrelevant, the panel of judges found.
On Tuesday, Ms Williams told Daily Mail Australia she intended to file for a review of the latest sequestration order and the $16,653.88 costs awarded.
The row that split a family and ended a near-70 year marriage
In 2020, NSW Supreme Court heard the Grants married in 1953 and welcomed their daughter Nerez, the first of five children, in 1956.
After raising their family in the Hunter Valley they moved to Sydney, buying a home in the harbourside suburb of McMahons Point for $750,000 in 1993.
For years before they moved, both Dr Grant and his wife had struggled with Nerez’s drug use and attitude towards them, including her regularly ‘harassing them for money’, the court was told.
Despite their toxic relationship with Nerez, the pair were determined to remain close to their granddaughter Kashaya.
They provided her with opportunities her mother could not including a trip to Europe and the U.S in 1997, something they did not offer to any of their other grandchildren.
Dr Grant would often sign cheques for his daughter, and in about 2008 and 2009 he began to also regularly give money to his granddaughter.
In the years that followed he would continue to give money to Kashaya, her husband and their wedding planning business, the court heard.
Dr Grant would give his credit card to Kashaya and her mother, or alternatively they would take him to ATMs and get him to withdraw cash, the court heard.
Dr Grant’s credit card statements from around that time included baby products, a brand new Audi Q5, and renovations to Kashaya’s property at MacMasters Beach on the Central Coast.
But the most controversial payment was $50,000 to Kashaya for her lavish wedding to Evan Williams, the prominent Sydney real estate agent.
The most controversial payment was $50,000 to Kashaya for her lavish wedding to Evan Williams, the prominent Sydney real estate agent (pictured together)
‘The significant cost of this wedding… was a cause of considerable friction in the family and Mrs Grant was not pleased that Dr Grant had been quite so generous with Kashaya,’ Justice Michael Slattery told the court.
Payments continued to flood in to Nerez and Kashaya over the years to come, much to the anger of Mrs Grant.
It eventually drove a wedge in the marriage of 60 years and led Mrs Grant to attempt in 2011 to sever the joint tenancies of the properties she and her husband owned.
Instead, Dr Grant and Mrs Grant went through mediation and agreed to sell the three houses they owned in NSW, pocketing more than $3.4million each.
In 2012, Mrs Grant cut both Nerez and Kashaya out of her will.
The court heard how in or around 2014 a ‘power struggle’ emerged between Nerez and Kashaya for control over Dr Grant’s mother. Nerez won.
By the time his wife died in May 2017, Dr Grant was living in a nursing home and after decades of family infighting he admitted to his son he had regrets about the control he had given his daughter over his life.
‘Nerez has isolated me from her [Mrs Grant] and my children,’ Dr Grant told his son.
Just a few months later Nerez – who was now in control of her elderly father’s estate – transferred a home owned by Dr Grant at Killcare into Kashaya’s name.
Kashaya then leased it back to her mother on a lifelong deal.
Mr Grant died in November 2019 at the age of 98, prompting the long-running legal battle.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk