Lack of Capacity to make a Will as a result of severe bereavement
Case of Key v Key [2010] EWHC 408 (CH)
Mr Key died in July 2008. He was 90 years old. He has four children, two sons and two daughters.
He had made a Will in 2001 leaving everything to his wife for her lifetime and then on to his two sons who had worked on the farm all their lives whilst his two daughters had moved away.
In 2006 the farming business was dissolved and split between the two sons, with Mr Key keeping the farmhouse and a small part of the land.
Only a week after Mrs Key died, the daughters came home. They found Mr Keys Will, which left nothing to them. They immediately arranged for his solicitor to take instructions for a new Will which left the bulk of the estate to them with a small residue left equally between the four children. This was on the basis of fairness, even though Mr Key’s previous 4 Wills had left little to his daughters and the bulk of his estate to his sons.
The sons successfully claimed the Will was invalid on the grounds of lack of testamentary capacity which was caused by the severe bereavement Mr Key had experienced when his wife, after 65 years of marriage passed away.
It was said that such a severe bereavement could bring about almost identical symptoms of sever depression leading a person to simply agree to what others are suggesting.
The estate was distributed according to a previous Will.