A divorcee left with ‘nothing’ after losing a £1million legal tussle with her high-flying daughters has won permission to bring them back to court.
Camilla Bains was once so close to her children that daughter Sonia, a doctor for the Football Association and formerly for Premier League clubs, donated one of her kidneys to save her ailing mother’s life.
But they ended up ‘a very sad, troubled and unfortunate family’ after a falling-out following Camilla’s divorce in 2019.
In order to keep her means-tested benefits, Camilla had a £340,000 divorce settlement go to her daughter Sonia and lawyer sister Sharn Bains.
Camilla also set fire to papers relating to her true ownership of her £800,000 home, leaving it in Sonia’s name.
But they ended up in court after Camilla tried to get the house back from Sonia, 39, and the cash back from both Sonia and her 30-year-old sister Sharn.
Suing at Central London County Court, she claimed the sisters had ‘colluded to make up a story’ to keep her wealth, while Sonia described her mother as ‘motivated by greed’ and ‘jealous’ of her daughters’ success in life.
Judge Nigel Gerald ruled in March last year that Camilla had no claim to the return of the house and money.
He found that she had got rid of her assets to keep her benefits and then regretted it.
Camilla Bains (pictured) was once so close to her children that daughter Sonia donated one of her kidneys for her
Dr Sonia Bains (right) and her lawyer younger sister Sharn Bains (left) are being sued by their mother over a 2019 divorce settlement she made with her ex-husband and their father
The case has now returned to London’s High Court, where a senior judge granted Camilla permission to resurrect the family fight over the house after hearing she had been left completely penniless by the row.
Her barrister Lexa Hilliard told High Court judge Mr Justice Fancourt: ‘It seems slightly odd and unfair that this woman has been left with nothing.’
The trial last year heard Mrs Bains was divorced from her husband in 2011 but the financial wrangling between them dragged on until it was finally settled in 2019.
As part of the settlement, lump sum payments from her ex did not go directly to her, but instead to her daughters.
Although she had previously received the former matrimonial home, she had wanted to move as her former husband was still living next door and so a new house was bought in Rosehill Gardens, Sutton.
The judge found the five-bedroom property, which was put up for sale three years ago at an asking price of £800,000, was in her daughter Sonia’s name but documents signed by the mother made it clear Mrs Bains was the beneficial owner.
Yet the family fell out and a bitter court row erupted after Mrs Bains laid claim to the house and the divorce monies.
Rejecting her case, the judge found that an August 2019 note signed by Mrs Bains showed she had relinquished her beneficial interest in the house to her daughter Sonia and also burned documents relating to her ownership of it.
Sonia Bains was a doctor for the FA and formerly for Premier League football clubs
He said: ‘Mother was consciously divesting herself of her assets so as to retain her welfare benefits.’
The case returned to court last week, with Camilla’s barrister asking for permission to appeal the county court ruling in relation to the house.
Explaining why she took on the case, she said Mrs Bains was left completely reliant on benefits, adding: ‘She doesn’t have any assets anymore. She has lost the property she had an interest in.
‘The variation of the financial remedy proceedings order meant that Sharn and Sonia received the lump sum payments paid by her husband.’
Ms Hilliard pointed to an August 2019 note in which Mrs Bains wrote that she ‘no longer holds a 99.9 per cent beneficial interest’ in the property.
She said the wording was not a legal disposition of the property but just a statement, with no evidence that she had in fact already relinquished her interest in writing as the law requires.
The lawyer said: ‘The August 2019 note was not a disposition of property subsisting at the time of the disposition.
‘What the note says is that, “I have disposed of my interest in the property”. In other words, what the document does is record ostensibly a disposition that’s already taken place.
‘But there is no evidence that the mother, prior to the 2019 note, had disposed of her interest in writing.
‘It was never alleged and there wasn’t a document in evidence that she had disposed in writing of her beneficial interest in the property at any time prior to signing this document.’
She also argued that the August 2019 note did not identify Sonia clearly enough as being the one to which Mrs Bains’ interest in the house was going.
Granting permission for a full appeal of the judge’s decision about the house, Mr Justice Fancourt said the arguments put forward were capable of success.
He said: ‘The test for me is not whether I would be likely to allow the appeal, but whether the arguments have a realistic, as opposed to fanciful, prospect of success.
‘I am satisfied that they do just get across the line and I will therefore give permission for those grounds to be argued.’
The case will return to court for a full hearing of Mrs Bains’ appeal at a later date.
