Claudia Nestola v Leicestershire County Care Ltd & Ors

Facts

The applicant, Ms Claudia Nestola, brought a claim as representative of her late father, Fernando Nestola, who died in August 2018 while residing in a care home operated by the First Defendant, Leicestershire County Care Ltd. His only Will had been drawn up in Italy in 2013. The Claimant had not been in contact with her father for around fourteen months before his death. She alleged that the care home manager, Ms Helen Preston, failed to notify her as next of kin and instead contacted her estranged mother and sister, the Third and Fourth Defendants, handing over her father's belongings including the title deeds to his Italian assets. The Third and Fourth Defendants instructed the Second Defendant firm, and in particular Ms Sarah Austin-Clark, a legal executive, on probate; an application for Letters of Administration was made in October 2019. The Claimant learned of her father's death from Italian lawyers by April 2020. Her particulars of claim, running to 187 paragraphs, alleged an unlawful means conspiracy founded on fraud, and claimed over £12 million. Master Sullivan struck the claim out on 28 July 2025, including against the First Defendant of her own motion, and the claim was certified totally without merit. Permission to appeal was refused on the papers by Mr Justice Moody, and the application was renewed orally.