The estate of the late Perth mining billionaire Michael Wright is fighting a court decision awarding $25 million to his youngest daughter Olivia Mead, arguing the $3 million he left her was enough.
Ms Mead, from Mr Wright's relationship with Elizabeth Anne Mead, was aged 19 in 2015 when Master Craig Sanderson of the Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled her bequest should be increased more than eightfold.
Ms Mead's older half-sisters, Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burt, were left the bulk of their father's estate - about $400 million each - while clauses in the will for Ms Mead's share included limiting her religious affiliation, which meant she could have ended up with nothing.
Jane Needham, representing David Lemon, the executor of Mr Wright's estate, told the full bench of the WA Court of Appeal on Thursday that $3 million "was indeed" adequate for the proper maintenance of Ms Mead, who compiled a lavish wishlist to estimate her future requirements.
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It included a $US1.2 million crystal-studded grand piano, a diamond-encrusted bass guitar, upkeep for her pet axolotl and provision for four children that she plans to have, and originally amounted to $20 million but was revised down to about $12.5 million.
Master Sanderson said Ms Mead had simply let her imagination run wild the same way most teens would if asked to outline such needs, was not "a gold digger" and awarded her $5 million more than she had initially asked for.
But Ms Needham said Master Sanderson had in effect regarded the size of the estate as trumping any other factor he needed to consider and he erred in regarding his discretion unfettered.
She said it was wrong to award Ms Mead twice as much as what she ultimately sought after considering "some quite extraordinary items" - even in the revised version of her wishlist - without accounting for her or her partner's future income.
Ms Needham cited Ms Mead's call for 20 pairs of $300 shoes every year for the next 75 years and Pilates lessons until she is aged 97.
Justice Michael Buss said he made no criticism of Ms Mead, but such items were "just silly".
He asked how the judges would evaluate what was proper in the circumstances, saying it might be the case that a reasonable house and income was what was needed.
Ms Needham said Ms Mead's upbringing had some relevance and she had been happy living in a $240,000 property in 2012, when her father died.
She added Ms Mead had nominated $2.5 million for a house and seen one in Fremantle that she liked.
Ms Needham also said it also wasn't appropriate to make the estate provide for Ms Mead's planned four children.
"We say the $3 million left to her ... was adequate," she said.
- AAP