Pratts’ ugly estate battle

As an estate lawyer once told me, where there’s a will, there’s a relative looking for a slice of the action. The bigger the estate, the greater the likelihood that friends, family and others will emerge to claim a piece of the pie.

So it has proved with the estate of the late packaging billionaire Richard Pratt, which finds itself embroiled in an ugly court battle with Madison Ashton, a former escort and mistress of the billionaire, who is suing the Pratt estate for $10 million in damages, claiming breach of contract.

Ashton says that in return for giving up her work as an escort, Pratt promised to provide her with a $500,000-a-year allowance, $36,000 for rent, $30,000 for travel expenses, a $100,000 car and two trust funds worth $2.5 million for each of her children.

The Pratt estate (his wife Jeanne is the executor of the will) is fighting the claim. Yesterday it was revealed in the NSW Supreme Court that in November 2005 Ashton signed a document agreeing to drop all claims against the family for $50,000. Ashton told the Court she did not realise what she was signing and agreed to sign under duress.

That’s probably the tamest claim to come out of the case so far, which included plenty of salacious details about three-in-a-bed romps, trained assassins working as body guards, slush funds, drugs and a bitter feud between Ashton and another Pratt mistress, Shari-Lea Hitchcock.

While the case is providing a rare glimpse inside the world a man who was one of Australia’s richest and most powerful billionaires, one good question remains: Why has the Pratt family decided to fight this case in such a public forum?

For a family worth more than $5 billion, settling Ashton’s claim would have been quick and a lot less painless than sitting through an embarrassing court trial.

However, given the details that have emerged in the case, it would appear that the family has been trying to come to an arrangement with Ashton for at least six years. Both parties may well have decided that enough is enough – the only way to get a resolution is via the court.

A further complication for the Pratt family is a separate challenge to the estate by Shari-Lea Hitchcock and the daughter she had with Richard Pratt, Paula.

While Paula will receive more than $20 million when she turns 18, Hitchcock is seeking a greater share of the estate through an action in the Victorian Supreme Court.

While Hitchcock’s case suffered a setback late last year when she lost a battle to have four properties included in Pratt’s estate, the case is still alive.

Which means that even after the messy trial involving Madison Ashton is over and the court as made its judgement, the Pratt family could still face another salacious court battle.