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High Court rejects police officer’s claim to invalidate mother’s last will
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The case of McCabe v McCabe [2015] EWHC 1591 (Ch) was a bitter contentious probate dispute between two brothers that lasted 11 days.Background
Leicestershire police officer Timothy McCabe was disinherited by his mother shortly before her death. Mrs McCabe had made a new will leaving all of her estate to her eldest son Stephen. Timothy claimed that his mother lacked testamentary capacity to make that will did not know or approve its contents and that it was invalidly executed. Timothy applied to prove an earlier will that divided the estate equally between the brothers.
Timothy’s case failed on all counts but it is the testamentary capacity challenge which is really interesting. New issues of confabulation and sequestration offer fresh insight in to problem areas in cases of elderly testators. I acted for Stephen and will take you through Timothy’s challenge and explain why it did not succeed.
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