Kiwi loses claim over inheritance

Marty Schmidt and his son Denali Schmidt during a mountain climbing expedition. Photo / Supplied

A New Zealand-born woman whose father and brother died climbing the world's most treacherous mountain has lost a lawsuit against her father's United States bank.

US District Judge David Hittner has dismissed claims by Sequoia Di Angelo against Wells Fargo, including that the bank was negligent in passing the contents of her father Marty Schmidt's accounts to his widow.

Mr Schmidt and her brother Denali Schmidt, 25, died in an avalanche on K2 in Pakistan in 2013.

Sequoia Di Angelo had her claims against Wells Fargo dismissed. Photo / Supplied via Facebook

Her stepmother, Giovannina Cantale, third defendant in the lawsuit, says she rejects any implication from a Herald report in June that Ms Di Angelo's inheritance "was paid to me, when it most definitely was not".

"Marty's will left specific instructions that his debts and accounts were to be paid from his American account and the balance of what was left was to go to his daughter," she said.

"With permission from the executors of his will, substantial trip deposits to climber partners were refunded, Marty's gear was collected, and everything was done to carry out Marty's wishes, backed by meticulous receipts, after which there was not a great deal remaining from this account, but which was paid to his daughter."

Ms Cantale approached the Herald last month to reject her stepdaughter's allegations after controversy over a video of human remains found near the base of K2.

Ms Di Angelo said from Pakistan that she had begun a process for appealing against Judge Hittner's decision.