New Court decision on legacies and mental illness
Howard Lake | 24 March 2004 | News
A recent court case in which the validity of a Will made by an elderly testatrix was considered could affect charitable legacies.
Sinclair Taylor & Martin, the Charity Team
at Solicitors Russell-Cooke have reported on
the recent case of Hoff v Atherton (2004) in which the Court had to consider the validity of a Will made by an elderly testatrix who was suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer-type dementia when she made the Will.
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The Court decided that the Will was valid in that, on the balance of probabilities, she was capable of understanding the nature of a Will and was giving the residue to the Defendant.
Sinclair Taylor & Martin commented in their latest newsletter that, as a result of this decision, “charity staff dealing with legacies should be aware that where there is a history of mental illness, there is no presumption of competence and it will be for those persons seeking to rely on the Will to prove the testator’s capacity.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.