A B.C. Supreme Court judge has overturned the will of a man who left all of his assets to his only son, neglecting his four daughters.

In a ruling posted on the court website Tuesday, Justice Randall Wong said that the deceased failed in being fair to the four women and ordered the inheritance to be divided among the five children.

Despite the dying man's wishes, the judge found that the will had to be "based on contemporary moral standards."

'Their father was a hard and rigid man who ruled his family, and especially the women, with an iron fist.'—B.C. Supreme Court Justice Randall Wong

The daughters challenged the will of William Werbenuk, who died in 2008 at the age of 86.

He named his only son, Randall, as the sole inheritor and the executor of the will, which included instructions for several estates, farmland in Saskatchewan and a valuable violin collection, as well as a house worth about $430,000.

Wong noted in his ruling that the father terrorized his daughters and made them wash his feet.

"The evidence of all of the daughters indicate that their father was a hard and rigid man who ruled his family, and especially the women, with an iron fist," Wong said in his ruling. "He was a racist whose will and personality dominated his family."

Werbenuk wrote in his will that his son had looked after him for a long time and deserved his inheritance.

Wong found that the daughters ought to be compensated for their father's behaviour.

The ruling orders the son to return the guns and tools given to him by his father and for those assets to be divided among the siblings.