The High Court has ruled that a will made by an elderly woman with dementia, in which she disinherited one of her sons, was invalid due to lack of testamentary capacity and want of knowledge and approval.

The woman's previous will, made in 2018, divided most of her £600,000 estate equally between her two sons. In 2020, one of her sons and his wife moved into her house. She made a new will in November that year, leaving almost all of her estate to the son and his wife and disinheriting her other son. In February 2021 she moved into a care home, by then suffering from advanced dementia. She died the following month, at the age of 93.

Ruling on the disinherited son's challenge to the 2020 will, the Court heard how, after the son named in the will and his wife had moved in with her, the woman had been isolated from family members and healthcare professionals. They had both been present when instructions were given for the will, and there was no evidence that the will writer had discussed the will with the woman on her own or taken steps to assess whether she had capacity to make it.

A note from the will writer indicated that the woman had said that the disinherited son had tried to kill his brother. The Court found that that claim had no basis in reality, and that either she had come to believe it because she had been told it by the son named in the will or his wife, or she had independently reached an erroneous belief to that effect.

In the Court's judgment, by late 2020 the woman had been unable to comprehend or appreciate the documents to which she should give effect, due to her misunderstanding of the issues or due to falsely planted information about what had passed between her sons. The Court declared the 2020 will invalid due to lack of proper execution, lack of testamentary capacity and want of knowledge and approval. Even if the will had been validly executed and the woman had had capacity, it would have been void for reasons of undue influence.

The Court confirmed the validity of the 2018 will, and ordered that the son named in the 2020 will and his wife must pay the disinherited son's legal costs.