Court Sides with Claimant in Disputed Will Over Sibling’s Inheritance

Court Sides with Claimant in Disputed Will Over Sibling’s Inheritance

The Central London County Court has recently ruled in favour of a claimant who was left nothing in his mother’s Will after a video emerged of his sister helping the deceased sign a new Will which left everything, including her house, to her.

Details

The deceased, Margaret Baverstock, was very ill and on her deathbed at the time of signing her Will. The deceased’s daughter, Lisa videoed the Will signing but it was shown that she was holding her mother’s hand as she was signing the Will, showing that the Will signing was not done by Margaret independently.

The Will was a homemade document drafted by Lisa, using an online template.

The deceased had been previously diagnosed with dementia in 2014, and she had signed her Will 8 days before she died in March 2021.

In the video, the deceased could not form a conversation with her daughter during the signing of her Will and was only able to answer basic questions by saying “yeah” or by mumbling.

The deceased’s daughter, Lisa, had moved in to her late mother’s home in 2019 to care for her. Lisa had then started to grow resentful toward John. Lisa had thought someone was trying to sell the property and had asked John to return the house keys, which he did. As a result of this, John contemplated whether this was done by Lisa to provide a reason for his mother to write him out of her Will.

Court

John challenged the Will on the grounds that the video of the Will signing showed it was “not the independent act of the deceased but she was effectively forced by the physical actions of Lisa into participating in a pantomime of due execution of a document she did not comprehend.” He also claimed that his mother was too mentally frail to understand the effect of what she was doing.

During the trial, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon, was satisfied that the deceased did not know what was going on when the Will signing took place, which in turn rendered the Will invalid.

Then Judge also mentioned the deceased’s dementia diagnosis as well as the fact that the deceased also had arthritis and suspected lung congestion. Therefore she would not be in to position to understand what she was doing and the effect of signing the Will.

John’s barrister, Mark Jones, stated how in the video, it can be seen that Lisa was repeatedly trying to place a pen into her mother’s hand. After struggling, she was able to place the pen between her mother’s fingers and then placed both of her hands over the deceased’s hand, showing that her mother’s hand was “propelled” when signing the Will.

Lisa represented herself in court and stated that her mother wanted her to inherit her home and that she was aware of what she was doing at the time of her signing her Will.

Lisa also stated how she gave up everything to care for her mother and claimed that John was not bothered about his mother.

Lisa had also claimed that that her mother had told John to get out of her house. John stated that he did not recall this and that the only person who wanted him out of their mother’s house was Lisa.

As a result, the judge found that not only did the deceased not understand what was going on, the deceased also did not have testamentary capacity when signing the Will, and did know and approve the contents of the Will.

The trial concluded with the Will being declared invalid, meaning that the deceased died intestate since there was no other Will made before. Therefore, the deceased’s wealth of £700,000 is to be split between Lisa and John. Lisa also would be paying John’s legal fees which were estimated to be around £80,000.

Conclusion

This case highlights the importance of understanding the contents of your Will and knowing what you are doing when signing your Will. It is clear that the deceased was not able to understand what she was doing as she had answered “yeah” to basic questions, which did not show she had an understanding of the Will.

Although “homemade wills” can be valid legal documents but they are more susceptible to challenge than a will prepared by solicitors.