House of Usher in 365m lawsuit

The Sunday Times - 01 April 2001 - Scotland

House of Usher in £365m lawsuit

Marcello Mega and Jenny Shields

THE fall of the House of Usher, from one of the wealthiest families in Britain to roadside hotdog purveyors, is one of the most spectacular in recent aristocratic history. But after years of setbacks, the impoverished heirs have finally launched Scotland's biggest lawsuit in an attempt to regain their family's fortune.

Stuart Usher has issued a summons for £365m against Brodies, Scotland's oldest law firm, claiming the company had been negligent in managing a family trust.

His ancestors once owned thousands of acres of prime land in Perthshire, Lothian and the Scottish Borders. Today Stuart Usher sells hotdogs to passing motorists near his home outside Jedburgh. Since he returned to the Borders from South Africa in 1995, he has also worked as a mini-cab driver and a barman at the Duke of Roxburghe's sumptuous country house hotel. Last week he said he believes he now has a fighting chance of winning back the family's wealth.

The Usher family lost control of its fortune in the 30 years to 1994, when successive family heads Sir Peter and Sir Robert Usher both suffered from Down's syndrome. Lawyers were appointed to manage the family trust. Mackenzie and Black, incorporated in the 1970s into Brodies, were appointed trustees of the Usher Baronetcy Trust, set up in 1911.

Between 1911 and 1933, about £1.2m in cash, property and securities was paid into the trust. According to the summons issued on Usher's behalf, the trust was generating an income by 1928 of £70,000 a year. It says the current value of identified trust assets would be £110m, capable of producing an income of £8m a year. However, the summons notes that between 1911 and 1998, family members received only £3m.

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