Lack of knowledge and approval – A Case Study

Mr Martin and Mrs Martin lived together and had been married for 10 years. They each had two children from previous relationships. Mr and Mrs Martin had each made a will which stated that their estate would pass to each other on their death and upon the death of both their estate would then be divided between all 4 children equally.

This had always been their intention as they had made a promise to each other that they would look after all 4 children regardless of whether they were blood relatives.

Mrs Martin died in December 2020 and her estate passed to her husband under the terms of her will. The property was valued at £600,000 and Mr and Mrs Martin had assets of around £20,000 (including cash in the bank and a car).

After her death, Mr Martin became heavily reliant upon his stepson, Gareth, as Mr Martin’s two biological children lived abroad in Australia.

Mr Martin was 90 years old when his wife died and was very frail. He could not see well and suffered from depression following his wife’s death. He was often confused and frustrated that he could not do the things he used to be able to do.

Gareth helped Mr Martin with the house as Mr Martin was no longer able to look after the garden or clean the house. Mr Martin also relied upon Gareth to read any correspondence to him and take him to the shops and doctor and dentist appointments.

Mr Martin was so grateful that Gareth was around to help him so much that he expressed a wish to leave him an additional small gift to him in his will when he died. Gareth was delighted that Mr Martin wanted to do this and quickly arranged an appointment with a solicitor for Mr Martin to make a new will.

Mr Martin was not able to arrange such an appointment by himself as he couldn’t see well, and he relied upon Gareth to take him to any appointments he had. During the meeting, the stepson answered most of the questions on Mr Martin’s behalf. Mr Martin was happy for Gareth to do this, and he expressed his wish to leave Gareth a gift in his will as he had become the main caregiver in his life. He was getting old, and he wanted to change his will before anything happened to him to reflect his wishes.

The new will left the whole of Mr Martin’s property to Gareth which was a much larger gift than Mr Martin had anticipated.

In addition, the will was not signed at the meeting but at a later meeting. Mr Martin’s health had deteriorated before he signed the final copy of the will and he trusted Gareth implicitly and paid little attention at the will signing.

Mr Martin died shortly after he signed the new will. After his death, his two biological children and Gareth’s sister were shocked to discover that the main asset in the estate had been left solely to Gareth. The remainder of the estate was minimal, and their share of the estate was small in comparison.

Mr Martin’s biological children sought to challenge the validity of the new will on the basis that their father did not understand or approve the contents of the will when he signed this. They alleged that their father did not appreciate the effect of his new will or that this would leave his biological children such a small share of his estate. They sought evidence to show that the Will was presented to Mr Martin in such a way that he could have provided his approval.