GitLab

Two nephews are secured a ₤ 400,000 will battle over the fortune of a 'houseproud' widow, who disinherited one side of her family after they recommended she go into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his better half Catherine, who lived only a few minutes from her south London home.

But her Michigan-based great-nephew, 39-year-old Ben Chiswick, has now launched a bid to inherit the lot himself - despite not visiting and even talking to her over the phone considering that his transfer to the US 8 years earlier.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had been due to inherit her fortune under a previous will composed almost 40 years ago in 1986 when he was a baby, but was drastically disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row emerged after his parents suggested Ms Stock hang out in a care home while they enjoyed a three-week holiday.

Fighting to reinstate the previous will, Mr Chiswick claims Ms Stock, who he states was a 'fixture in his youth,' was too stricken by dementia to properly comprehend what she was doing when she changed her testimony.

However, Simon and his better half are combating the case, claiming Mr Chiswick - who has lived in the US given that 2017 - had no 'meaningful relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had actually been 'the closest thing to a child she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and occasionally 'persistent' Ms Stock had a deep emotional accessory to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having actually shared it with her partner Samuel until his death in 2001.

Ben Chiswick, 39, visualized right with daddy Brent, is challenging Doreen Stock's will in the courts after she disinherited him a year before her death

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (imagined), and his spouse Catherine

Without any children of her own, Ms Stock's first will, made in 1986, left her estate to Mr Chiswick, son of her niece Patricia Chiswick and other half Brent.

The estate primarily consists of the Mottingham house, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000.

The court heard Ms Stock had had a good relationship with the Chiswicks, who assisted her with her shopping and visited her frequently.

She even made an enduring power of lawyer in their favour, however before she died revoked the document and changed her will, leaving whatever to a nephew on her husband's side.

Challenging the will, Mr Chiswick claims that his great-aunt's dementia in her last years means there is serious doubt whether she had the needed capacity to make the changes.

And he stated the truth there was no discussion with his side of the family about the brand-new will suggested 'something not right' about her change of mind.

'Doreen and I had a really delighted relationship and she comprehended that leaving her estate to me would make an enormous difference to my life,' he said in his proof.

For Simon and Catherine, barrister James McKean told the court that Ms Stock had actually also been close to Simon, who was 'the nearby thing to a boy she had,' contributing to his school costs as a child.

And although she previously had a close relationship with Mr Chiswick's moms and dads, that was messed up when they recommended she go into a care home in 2019.

Patricia had actually then arranged for a 'capacity assessment' for her auntie, which the barrister said led to Ms Stock fearing her independence was being threatened and eventually changing her will.

The estate primarily includes the Mottingham house, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000

Can we present our daughter three of the bedrooms in our home to lower estate tax bill?

The court heard there had actually been 'structure bitterness' with the way her power of lawyer was being administered, which 'lastly boiled over in the summer of 2019 when the Chiswicks made an ill-judged - though perhaps well-intentioned - recommendation to Doreen that she spend a duration in residential care.

'Doreen was, by all accounts, jealously independent. It is little marvel that she discovered the proposition to be worrying and offending.

'No doubt Doreen was fretted about the possibility of going into a home, then was asked to go through the capability assessment, and put 2 and 2 together.'

Within weeks of the assessment, which led to a report stating she 'lacked capability,' she had actually started actions to the power of attorney and make a brand-new will in Simon and Catherine's favour, he told the judge.

Quizzing Patricia Chiswick in the witness box, he included: 'Doreen liked her home and it had been her and Samuel's home before his death. There was a deep psychological connection to that residential or commercial property.

'Saying to Doreen that she should leave that residential or commercial property and invest some time in a care home stank to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's perspective, this should have looked a real threat to her self-reliance.'

But Patricia denied upsetting the pensioner, firmly insisting that the plan was just ever for a time-out in a care home while she and her husband went on vacation.

'It was merely an idea since we don't usually go away for 3 weeks at a time, and I think she had been rather unwell and her health was degrading in general,' she stated.

'I was worried about leaving her and I thought it would be quite great if she could go someplace where she could be looked after while we were away.

'It was absolutely stressed that it was for 3 weeks. There was no idea she was going to stay there forever.'

The Chiswicks did not check out Ms Stock once again between the capacity evaluation in 2019 and her death in May 2021.

For Patricia's kid Mr Chiswick, who is the plaintiff in the event, barrister Simon Lane said that, at the time she made the new will, she was 'vulnerable and was behaving out of character.'

The 2019 evaluation performed after the suggestion of a care home move had actually resulted in a specialist's finding that she 'lacked capability,' he said.

But Mr McKean said the assessment was lacking, with Ms Stock responding to with 'prickly hostility' when she was quizzed about things that made no sense to her, such as a fire which never in fact took place.

Other evaluations around the same time had led to findings that she did have capability, although she was experiencing 'moderate' dementia,' he stated.

'Doreen may have had some memory issues, but capability and memory are different beasts,' he said.

'The court will have a hard time to find any evidence of impaired cognition or thinking. On the contrary, Doreen's behaviour, values and reasoning corresponded and plausible at all times.'

He said there was factor for her to choose to alter her will, the last being made more than thirty years formerly, which by then Mr Chiswick - living and working on the opposite of the Atlantic - would have been 'far from her mind as a beneficiary.'

He had not seen her again or even spoken on the phone after transferring to the US, while the majority of the evidence of their relationship came from when he was a kid.

On the other hand, Mr Stock and his other half had been able to visit her regularly, living not far from her in Eltham, south London, he stated.
base-search.net
'The court can be shocked neither by the making of the disputed will, nor by Doreen's choice of beneficiaries,' he added.

The judge is anticipated to give her judgment on the case at a later date.