Widow fails to prove authenticity of husband's Dh734m will at Dubai court

Lebanese woman was left luxury cars and more than 30 homes in disputed document

The Dubai Court of Personal Status dismissed the inheritance case. Chris Whiteoak / The National

A widow has failed at a Dubai court to prove the authenticity of her late husband's will, in which she was left the majority of his Dh734 million ($200m) estate.

The Lebanese woman, 75, asked Dubai Court of Personal Status to acknowledge the document, which she said was written in 2013.

She said the dead man, from Canada, who was a partner in a UAE-based construction company, had asked for Canadian inheritance law to be implemented during the will’s execution.

She sought to exclude her husband's siblings from the bulk of the inheritance, from which she was due to receive 29 apartments, including the couple's home in Dubai Marina, three villas, 10 land plots in different areas of Dubai and four luxury cars.

Judges heard the woman filed the case more than a year after the man’s death in Dubai in October 2020.

They were told she did so only after an inheritance inventory request was submitted to UAE courts by the childless man’s two sisters and brother, his closest relatives.

“The request for inventory was submitted with her knowledge and she filed for the case more than a year after her husband’s death,” lawyer Awatif Mohammed from Al Rowaad Advocates told the court.

The widow failed to prove the authenticity of the will in court and no evidence was found to prove the will had been registered in the UAE or Canada.

“A copy of the will, which the wife initially rejected to submit to court, was referred to the criminal laboratory in Dubai which compared the signature on it with his signature on the passport,” said the lawyer.

She presented evidence by experts who said the signature on the two documents was not identical.

Following several court hearings, judges ordered that the woman’s case be dismissed.

The ruling can be appealed within 30 days.

In similar verdicts where inheritance claims have been dismissed, the disputed inheritance has been divided according to UAE laws.