Kinship dispute over £2.7 million estate sparks transatlantic row

A London High Court is weighing a rare kinship inquiry to decide who should inherit the £2.7 million estate of McDonald Noel, a Trinidad-born shopkeeper who died in London in 2018 without a will or spouse. The case centers on whether Noel’s father, Stanley Dorant, fathered additional children in the Caribbean, potentially creating several branches of relatives who could claim a share of the fortune.

Noel, who emigrated to London in 1960, left behind an estate valued at about £2.7 million, including a £1.5 million house in Batoum Gardens, Hammersmith. He died in London in April 2018, aged 84, intestate and with no spouse or children. The High Court, before Master Katherine McQuail, is assessing who should be eligible to inherit.

At issue are the descendants of Stanley Dorant's two relationships: with Noel's mother, Neutrice Dorant, and with Clementina Forde, who bore several of Stanley's other children. Gerard Burton, Stella Dorant's son, contends he should potentially receive a share if the court finds that Stella was also a child of Stanley, which would place Gerard as a more direct relative under certain interpretations of the family tree. Clementina's two other sons, Clyde and St Clair Dorant, are represented by Desiree Dorant (St Clair's daughter) and by Tyler Dorant (Clyde's grandson), who say Stanley fathered them as well and that their lines are eligible to share in the estate.

Francis’s son, Shaka, is also laying claim to a share, arguing that his father’s paternity by Stanley should be recognized for inheritance purposes. The group of claimants thus spans multiple branches potentially tied to Stanley’s line, extending across both Barbados and Trinidad.

Daniel Burton, for Desiree and her siblings, told the judge that the romantic life of McDonald Noel’s father is central to the genealogical questions in the case. He said documentary records show Stanley traveled between Trinidad and Barbados and fathered children on each island, complicating who should be considered Noel’s rightful heir. The court has been asked to determine how many children Stanley fathered, with whom, and who they were, to resolve the distribution of Noel’s estate under intestacy rules.

Aidan Briggs, representing Shaka and Francis’s interests, urged the court to be cautious about accepting claims based on family beliefs alone. He noted that only two of Stanley’s children—McDonald Noel and Francis—appear on birth certificates naming him as father, and he cautioned that other claims could reflect paternity disputes or social norms of the time. He argued that, where DNA evidence supports Stella and Francis’s claims, the court should consider those findings, but should not be swayed by assertions from descendants about uncertain paternity.

The case is being watched as a rare example of a legal kinship inquiry in a modern inheritance dispute, with DNA testing and documentary records playing a central role in determining who, if anyone beyond Gerard, Shaka, Desiree, or Tyler, should inherit Noel’s estate. The judge will issue a ruling at a later date, which could significantly reshape the distribution of a multi-million-pound legacy that has already drawn interest from heir-hunting agencies.

The dispute underscores how inheritance law in the United Kingdom can intersect with long-running family histories that cross international borders, particularly when a parent is found to have fathered children with more than one partner across multiple islands. Depending on the court’s findings, Noel’s estate could be distributed among several relatives rather than passing to a single beneficiary, reflecting the complexities of intestacy and the potential reach of Stanley Dorant’s progeny across the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.