Inheritance
Probate Disputes
Case Study

Inheritance and probate dispute mediation, the claimant claimed to be the executor named in the last will of her late mother whereby all assets, with a value of approximately £4,277,000 went to her. The defendants who were 3 other children of the deceased who would have benefited under earlier wills and codicils claimed that their late mother lacked testamentary capacity at the time of that last will, and that the previous will which benefited all of them more or less equally should stand.

It was alleged that their younger sister the claimant had induced their mother into making and signing another will, even if she hadn’t their late mother lacked testamentary capacity at the time anyway. Both camps blamed the other, alleging fraudulent activity, stealing of items, the list went on. Apparently over the years all of the children were given loans in cash for various things they wanted and required, 2 of the children had paid these back, and 2 had not. Items of furniture and jewellery had also been taken at some points by some of the siblings.

Although in a nursing home at the time of her death, reports from the late mother’s physician showed she was fully aware of what she was doing, the issue then turned to whether she had been coerced under the duress of the claimant to make this new will. With little if any evidence to prove either way why this new will had been created, all parties were looking at a very expensive trial as well as a difficult time in enforcing their claims.

The estate had already been eaten away with the sizable legal fees that had been incurred to date, which would be paid out of the siblings individual respective shares of the estate, once the inheritance tax, legal fees to date, possible legal fees of a trial that would need to take place had been accounted for the estate was going to be much lighter than anticipated.