Memory loss ‘not reason to reject will’

The judge, sitting at London’s High Court, said the law “upholds the right of elderly people to leave their property as they choose, even if their mental faculties have declined considerably”.

Mother-of-four Constance Simon made her last will at her 88th birthday party arranged by family members which was not attended by her son, Robert, who brought the case.

He was one of three surviving adult children along with brother Jonathan and twin sister Hilary Woolley, who lives in Halifax.

The court heard that a will made nine years before the birthday had favoured Robert, gifting him a flat and his mother shares in a company founded by her late husband.

The judge said Robert wanted the birthday will, made without a solicitor present, declared invalid because, by the time it was made in December 2005, his mother was suffering from mild to moderate dementia and therefore lacked mental capacity to make a valid will.

The judge agreed that Mrs 
Simon “was not capable of remembering her reasons for preferring Robert in her previous will, or its terms”.

But he said to rule that Mrs Simon did not have testamentary capacity “would be inconsistent with the authorities which support the right of elderly people to make a will disposing of their property as they see fit, even if their mental faculties are far from being at their peak”.

The judge said there must be many legal cases in which people could no longer remember “all the circumstances relevant to the division of their property between the people they wished to benefit”.

He refused permission to appeal against his decision.