The deceased, who had given instructions for the preparation of the codicil some time earlier, was gravely ill after a heart attack at the time when he executed it and died the next day. The codicil was challenged on the grounds of want of knowledge and approval. An application to strike out a challenge to a codicil on the grounds that the claim disclosed no cause of action. The court considered the effect of delay on a challenge to the validity of a will, and the effect of the alleged inability of the testator to read the will.
Held: Any invalidity arose from the lack of testamentary capacity, and not from any want of knowledge and approval. The challenge failed.
Slade J described the position in law: ‘The authorities appear to show that in a case where a testator, even in a state approaching insensibility, has executed a testamentary instrument drawn up in accordance with previous instructions, he will be held to have known and approved of its contents if, at the time of execution, he was capable of understanding and did understand that he was engaged in executing the will for which he had given instructions, even though at the moment of execution he might not have remembered those previous instructions and would not, at that moment, have understood the provisions of the will, if read to him clause by clause: see Williams and Mortimer, Executors, Administrators and Probate, 15th ed. (1970), p. 148 and the cases there cited. However, if a litigant is successfully to avail himself of this principle he must, I think, satisfy the court at least that the testator at the time of execution was capable of understanding and did understand that he was executing the will for which he had given instructions.’
Slade J
[1982] 1 WLR 310
England and Wales
Citing:
Applied – Parker and Another v Felgate and Tilly ChD 7-Jul-1883
Capacity to execute Will once instructions given
A will was challenged on the basis of alleged lack of capacity. The testatrix had capacity when instructing her solicitor, but suffered from Bright’s disease which affected her kidney, and she fell into a coma before it was prepared. She was roused . .
Cited by:
Cited – Perrins v Holland and Others; In re Perrins, deceased CA 21-Jul-2010
The testator had given instructions for his will and received a draft will. The judge had found that he had capacity to make the will when he gave instructions but not when it was executed. The will having been made in accordance with his . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 October 2021; Ref: scu.421023
