High Court overturns disabled man’s will

The High Court has overturned the will left by a disabled man after his two brothers received nothing.

The 46 year-old had an estimated £1.1 million estate when he died in 2013. This was primarily the result of a compensation award he received after a motorcycle accident in 1985 caused head injuries and limited the use of his limbs.

A few weeks before he died, the man made a will which left 95 per cent of this to the carer who was appointed his “supporting landlord” in 1993.

Following the man’s death, his solicitor contacted his two brothers to inform them that there was “something seriously wrong” with the will. Speaking to the Daily Mail, one of the man’s brothers said he was “staggered” to hear about the changes.

In a previous will, the man had asked for 60 per cent of his estate to be donated to various charities such as Save the Children and Cancer Research UK.

The two brothers launched a legal bid to have the new will overturned in favour of the previous one. Judge David Cooke heard their case and declared their brother had been “prone to suggestibility” and did not know what he was doing and therefore the latest will was not an accurate reflection of what he wanted. The judge ordered that the man’s original will be reinstated.

The brothers’ legal bid was “never about money, it was about the principal of honouring [the man’s] true intentions” they claimed. However, the decision was “not really a victory [because they] have been put through three years of hell needlessly” in order to rectify the situation.