A WIDOW’S son and daughter dragged a row about her £300,000 will all the way to the High Court.

Sybil Rigby “had a real thing against solicitors” and refused to have anything to do with the legal profession, the High Court heard.

She drew up her own DIY will before her death at the age of 86 in 2011.

But squabbling siblings Janice Wilby, 65, and Ian Rigby, 67, disputed how to administer the will and it ended up at the High Court in London.

The hearing was told Mr Rigby, of Thurlston Close, Parson's Heath, Colchester, and MrsWilby, of St Ives, Cornwall, were treated equally by their mother.

She divided her assets between them and appointed them both as her executors.

But, due to their “inability to see eye to eye and work together”, neither of them has a penny of their inheritance.

Judge David Hodge QC said he was “sad” that, in spite their mother’s aversion to lawyers, her “warring” children had ended up in court.

He sacked them both as executors and said taking them both “out of the equation” was the best option.

The court heard Mr Rigby lived in the same street as his mother until she died, while Mrs Wilby lived 300 miles away in Cornwall and was a “virtual stranger” to her brother.

Mr Rigby told the judge he had seen his sister “about six times in the past 40 odd years” and “had no relationship” with her.

“We are not close in any way. I hardly even recognised her. I don’t know her life and she doesn’t knowmine,” he added.

Their falling out began when the pair met up in their mother’s house to clean it after her death, the court heard.

They disagreed about renovation work to the property and whether it should be sold or rented out.

Mrs Wilby claimed her brother, an electrician, had “ripped out the interior” of the house without consulting her.

And she complained he had let one of his partner Veronica Abbott's relatives live in the property rent free for almost four years.

For his part, Mr Rigby claimed his sister had created a stalemate, preventing him from obtaining probate and selling the house.

Mr Rigby told the judge when his father died, the solicitors’ bills had been large and added his mother had “made me promise not to involve solicitors in the administration of her estate”.

He said: “I feel deeply that is the last thing I can do for her.”

Judge Hogg QC said: “This is a sad kind of litigation between warring siblings.” He told them: “The question is whether you can work together and it is quite apparent you can’t.”

He added: “I am entirely satisfied there has been a complete communication breakdown.

There is a clash of personalities and mutual lack of confidence.

“We know what Sybil wanted because she left a will. What is clear is that these two siblings do not get on and cannot work together.

“They have lost trust in each other."

He removed Mrs Wilby and Mr Rigby as executors of the will.

New executors will now either have to be agreed on by the siblings or independently appointed – in which case, they are likely to be lawyers.

The judge also ordered Mr Rigby to pay £13,500 from his half of the estate to compensate his sister for lost rental income on the house.

He was also told to pay the legal costs of the case, estimated at £40,000.