The will of an elderly woman who disinherited her children when she developed delusions that they had been physically violent towards her was successfully contested by her family recently. In 1998, the woman made a will leaving nearly all of her £2.5 million estate to the National Osteoporosis Society, saying that her children were well provided for.
The court heard medical evidence suggesting that the woman was suffering from paranoia and there was no evidence of mistreatment by her children. Despite the fact that the will was prepared by a solicitor, the court accepted that the allegations against her children were unfounded and that there was no logical reason why she should have cut them out of her will. Accordingly, it found that she disinherited them because of her delusions and therefore did not have testamentary capacity when the will was created.