'Black Jack' Dellal argues that deceased husband gave away fortune

The widow of 'Black Jack' Dellal has been encouraged to reach a settlement with her husband's family by a after she won the latest battle for 'reasonable provision'.

Ruanne Dellal is demanding more money after her deceased husband, Jack Dellal, left her only £15.4m out of an estimated £400m following his death in October 2012.

Mr Dellal, who was well known for his gambling exploits, left his multi-million pound estate to his widow, who claims the apportionment was an 'absurd presentation' of the true scale of his wealth.

Mrs Dellal argued that if her husband's fortune had shrunk to the stated figure then he must have given money away to relatives without her knowledge. Last week she won an initial round of a court fight with members of her husband's family after Mr Justice Mostyn said he wanted to analyse more evidence.

Despite submissions from Tracey Angus QC, who represented the relatives, arguing that Mrs Dellal had no prospect of success at trial, Mostyn J said: 'My overarching conclusion is that it would be fundamentally unjust to terminate the application at this stage before there has been a scrutiny of the underlying documents which would prove conclusively whether or not the averrals by each of the defendants that there have been no relevant dispositions in their favour are true or false.'

Commenting on the news, Thomas Eggar associate and private client lawyer Samantha Ewing said: 'The sums involved in this claim may make Mrs Dellal's claim for more appear controversial.

However Mrs Dellal's wealth in her own right should not defeat her claim for reasonable financial provision.'

Ewing continued: 'Whereas Mrs Dellal may suggest that the dispositions were orchestrated by "Black Jack" to defeat any claim brought by her after his death, the family will in return likely argue that Mr Dellal was free to make gifts in his usual generous fashion to his eight children and other family members and that he never intended to defeat any claim by his wife.'

'The difficulty will be in untangling any transactions made by Mr Dellal in the six years before his death and the inevitable costs that will be incurred in doing so. As the value of the claim appears to be mooted at around £50m, a settlement between the numerous parties may prove difficult but should be encouraged,' she added.