It’s unfortunately all too common a tale. Out of the blue, an older person, rendered vulnerable by age or illness, acquires a new “friend”. Before anyone in the family realises what’s going on, their loved one has died, and the fraudster claims to be sole heir in terms of a last-minute will.
No surprise then that our courts must often determine whether a deceased person’s last will was tainted by incapacity, undue influence, fraud, or even forgery. The sad tale of a 90-year-old man who left behind two conflicting wills is a good example of how our courts approach these situations.
“Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.” (From Aesop’s Fables)
Your relative or friend dies, having at the last minute made a new will leaving everything to a new sole heir. You’re suspicious: the deceased was vulnerable, perhaps dying or suffering from dementia, and you’re convinced that they were taken advantage of by a manipulative fraudster. What can you do about it?
The bad news is that it’s never easy to have a will set aside. Our courts have repeatedly said that they will not do so lightly, and the onus will be on you to prove invalidity. But, as a recent High Court decision illustrates, it can be done.
A sad tale of two wills
This unhappy saga revolves around the two conflicting wills of a Durban man (a “bubbly, talkative social butterfly”) who died on 8 February 2022, just a day short of his 91 st birthday and living in deteriorating mental and physical health in a care home.
In his earlier will, dated 29 September 2020, he had left everything to five charities. But then on 1 February 2022, just seven days before his death, he supposedly signed a second will in which he revoked all previous wills and named as his sole heir a man who claimed to have become a “son” to him.
The charities asked the High Court to declare the second will void, and the new heir fought back with a story that he had become like a son to the deceased after supposedly saving him and his wife from a robbery in 2017. It was, he said, no surprise that the deceased had decided to leave everything to him.
The deathbed will set aside
The Court was faced with conflicting evidence from a long list of witnesses for both sides. Its final conclusion? The charities
©LawDotNews
