Montgomerie alleges Minns is an 'arch-manipulator' who exploited her guilt over her divorce to extract loans, using threats of homelessness and preventing her from seeing her grandchildren to secure cash. According to Montgomerie, Minns threatened to leave her 'on the streets'.
Minns and his wife contest the case, with their lawyers calling Montgomerie a 'serial liar'. Minns claims much of what his mother gave him was a 'gift' and insists he will not sell the house to his mother until she pays him £310,000, which he alleges she owes.
The son is calling the mother a serial liar and the mother is calling the son an arch-manipulator.
The judge, Mr Justice Richard Smith, referred to the 'awful family background' and noted the mutual accusations. Montgomerie was brought up in poverty by her older brother after losing both parents by age 12, and had her son at age 17, divorcing in the 1980s. The full trial has not yet been scheduled.