The two nephews have been closed in a battle of £ 400,000 on the fate of a widow, which disintegrated one side of her family when she suggested that she goes to a care house.
Doren Stock, who had no children, died in 2021 at the age of 86.
He left him completely estate His nephew, Simon Stock, and his wife Catherine, who lived close to his South London house.
Mr. Stock claimed that he was like a son of Doren-but after 39-year-old Ben Chiswik, the great nephew of Doren, the will is now challenging in court, began a bid to inherit himself.
Ben, a propulsion engineer, located in Michigan, was inherited his luck after being written under a child written in the US, 1986, when he was a child, but was dramatically disrupted by his great-aunt a year before his death, as his parents suggested to spend time in a care house.
He is fighting to restore the previous willpower, claiming Doren, who says that he was “a stability”, much more. Dementia To understand properly, what she was doing when she changes her desires.
However, the stock is fighting the case, claiming Ben – who has lived in the US since 2017 – there was no “meaningful relationship” with Doren beyond his early years.
Meanwhile, Simon, “was the closest thing to a son”, he said.
Seated Central london county courtJudge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that “independent” and sometimes “stubborn” Doren had a deep emotional attachment to his home in Charminster Road, Motingam, shared with her husband Samuel until her death in 2001.
Doren’s first wish made in 1986, eventually left his property to his niece Petricia Chiswik and husband Brent’s son Ben.
Estate mainly consists of Motingam House, which costs around £ 400,000.
The court heard that Doren had a good relationship with Chiswik, who helped him in his purchasing and regularly met him.
Even she created a permanent power of attorney in her favor, but before she died, she canceled the document and changed her wish, left everything in her husband’s favor to a nephew in favor of her husband: tax advisor Simon Stock and his wife Catherine.
Challenging Will, Ben Chiswik claims that his great-aunt’s dementia in his last years means that there is serious doubt whether he had the necessary ability to make changes.
He said that there was no discussion about the family about the family that “nothing right” was suggested about his change of mind.
She said in her evidence, “Doren and I had a really happy relationship and she understood that leaving my property with me would make a huge difference in my life.”
Barrister James McCain for Simon and Catherine told the court that Doren was also close to Simon, contributing to his school fees as a child.
Although she first had a close relationship with Ben’s parents, she was ruined when she suggested that she goes to a care house in 2019, the court heard.
To make cases worse, Petricia then arranged for a “capacity evaluation” for her aunt, due to which Barrister said that Doren was being threatened with fear of her freedom and eventually changing her wish.
The way his Power of Attorney was being administered, with “construction resentment” with him, which was “boiled in the summer of 2019 when Chiswik made a sick-judge-although perhaps well-intention was suggested to-Dhoren, that he spends a period in residential care”.
The barrister said, “Doren, by all accounts, was independent of jealousy. It is a little surprising that he found the proposal dangerous and aggressive,” said the barrister.
“There is no doubt that Doren was concerned about the possibility of going into a house, then asked to undergo capacity evaluation, and put two and two together.”
Within weeks of assessment, resulting in a report that was stated that it was a “lack of ability”, he had initiated steps to cancel the power of attorney and create a new will in favor of Simon and Catherine, he told the judge.
Quizing Petricia Chiswik in the witness box, he said: “Doren loved his house and it was his home and Samuel’s house before his death. There was a deep emotional relationship with that property.
“Saying Doren that he should leave that property and spend some time in a care house, was aggressive to him, isn’t it?
“From Doren’s perspective, it would see a real danger to his freedom.”
But Petricia denied getting upset PensionerEmphasized that the plan was only for a small break in the house while she and her husband went on leave.
“This was only one suggestion because we usually do not go away for three weeks at a time, and I think she was quite unwell and her health was deteriorating normally,” she said.
“I was worried about leaving her and I felt it would be quite good if she could go somewhere where she was away, while we were far away.
“It was fully emphasized that it was for three weeks. There was no suggestion that she was going to stay there indefinitely.”
The Chiswikas did not visit Doren between the capacity evaluation in 2019 and his death in May 2021.
For Petricia’s son Ben, who is a contender in the case, Barrister Simon Lane said, when she had created a new desire, she was “weak and behaving out of the character”.
He said that after the suggestion of the care home move, 2019 assessment resulted in the discovery of an expert that he had “lack of capacity”, he said.
But Mr. McCain said that there was a lack of assessment, Doren responded with “thorny enmity” when he was told about things that had no meaning for him, such as a fire that had never happened.
Other assessments around the same time resulted in conclusions that she had capacity, although she was suffering from “light” dementia, he said.
“Doren may have some memory problems, but capacity and memory are different animals,” he said.
“The court would struggle to find any evidence of impaired feeling or argument. On the contrary, Doren’s behavior, value and arguments were consistent and admirable at all times.”
He said that the reason for deciding to change his wish was being built over 30 years ago, and by then Ben – staying on the other side of the Atlantic and working – would be “far from his mind as a beneficiary”.
He had not seen her again or did not even talk on the phone after going to America, while most of the evidence of her relationship came since she was a child.
On the other hand, Simon and Catherine were able to see him regularly, not staying away from him in Elthum, South London, he said.
He said, “The court could neither be surprised to make disputed willpower, nor to the choice of Doren’s beneficiaries,” he said.
The judge is expected to give him a decision on the matter at a later date.
