A Brazilian-born doula and yoga teacher has won a High Court battle against her late husband's brother over a £5 million property fortune. Gabriela Teixeira, 51, was cut out of her husband Abbas Moaven's estate after he signed documents declaring that four properties were not entirely his, but shared with his mother and brother.
Mrs Teixeira married Abbas, a wealthy property investor and restaurateur, in 2002 after meeting him at his Notting Hill restaurant. They had two children and lived in high-end properties in Holland Park and Kensington. After Abbas died of cancer in 2012 aged 45, Mrs Teixeira discovered that his estate, which she and her children were due to inherit, could be worthless due to debts.
Weeks before his death, Abbas signed trust documents stating that four properties worth over £3 million were owned in one-third shares by himself, his brother Amir, and their mother. Mrs Teixeira and her children, Elis and Aryan, launched a legal challenge, arguing the documents were a 'sham' designed to prevent her from accessing the wealth.
Deputy Master Timothy Bowles ruled in favour of Mrs Teixeira, finding that the story behind the documents was a 'fiction' and that the properties should fall into Abbas's estate. The judge noted that lawyers' notes from a meeting with Amir raised concerns that Mrs Teixeira might 'disappear to Brazil' with the children after Abbas died.
The estate, now potentially worth £5 million, will be shared among Mrs Teixeira and her two adult children. Mrs Teixeira, who works as a birth doula and yoga teacher, said she received the 'call to serve' after the birth of her first child.
