PT-2023-BRS-000112 - [2025] EWHC 2633 (Ch)

On the pleadings as they stand, the first defendant makes a number of challenges to the 2014 will, although at the trial not all were pursued, and she said she was now neutral on others. I do of course bear in mind that the first defendant was acting in person when she drafted her statements of case, but I must take those statements as they are. She asserted that the 2014 will was invalid on four separate bases. First, the deceased lacked testamentary capacity at the time of making the 2014 will (“my Mother was mentally incapable of making a will in 2014”). Secondly, the deceased did not know or approve of the contents of the will. Thirdly, the deceased made the will under the “undue influence” of the person who took instructions for it, a wills consultant named Tom Wansbrough, who “constantly pressurised my Mother into making a new will”. Fourthly, the original will was no longer available, and therefore the court should admit the earlier 1984 will to probate.

There is no real dispute as to the relevant law, but I will say a few words nonetheless for the benefit of the parties, who are not lawyers.