An act of love and affection by a father more than 60 years ago has ended in a legal feud that has pitted his 93-year-old daughter against the rest of the family.
Dulcie Harper's case is not helped by the cold application of the law, which refused to recognise her adopted children as beneficiaries of a substantial trust fund established by her father, the late Cape Town optician Louis John Druiff.
Now she holds out hope that the Supreme Court of Appeal will be as sympathetic to her case as her father was generous.Harper, of Port Elizabeth, took the trust and family members to the High Court in Cape Town to have the words "descendants" "issue" and "legal descendants" in the trust deed amended to include her adopted children. But a bitter legal battle ensued when family members and trustees objected.
The preamble of the trust, which Druiff established in January 1953, reads: "For the benefit of his children and their descendants by reason of the love and affection which he bears them." The beneficiaries were Harper and her siblings, Gladys Clark, Nina Lewin and Lester Druiff, who are now dead. Their shares devolved to their children.
Eight days before his death in May 1953, Druiff amended the trust deed, saying that if one of his four offspring died without children, "his or her one-fourth share shall devolve upon the remaining children".
Harper, who could not have children, adopted David Wilkinson in 1955 and Amanda Truter in 1957. "At the time of the execution of the trust deed and its amendment I did not have any children, although I had fallen pregnant but was unable to give birth as a result of a miscarriage," she said in court papers.
"In fact, I had more than one miscarriage. [My father] was aware that I was experiencing difficulties in conceiving a baby and carrying it to full term. I had discussions with [him] regarding adoption but at that stage he had told me not to rush into anything and that I was still young and should wait to see what the future holds. [He] therefore was aware that at the time of execution of the trust deed, adoption was an option."..