Published on: 15th September 2016

Judge invalidates Will after brothers question its validity

The Will of a "significantly vulnerable" man who left 95% of his estate to his carer has been invalidated by a High Court Judge.

David Poole suffered a motorcycle accident previously in his life and was awarded £1 million from damages. Since 1994, he had been living in the care of Mark Everall who was placed to him by Worcestershire County Council.

In December 2012, Mr Everall was named as a beneficiary in a Will written by Mr Poole. However, Mr Poole's brothers, Darren and Sean, questioned the validity of this Will which left nothing to the siblings. They asked the High Court to declare in favour of a Will written by their brother in February 2012, where they were both named as beneficiaries.

It was argued in the case by the judge that Mr Poole was a vulnerable person, and it was suggested that this was particularly in relation to handling his money. He was happy that Mr Poole did have the capabilities to write the most recent Will but said that he wasn't completely aware of the implications of his actions. Evidence suggested that Mr Poole didn't have a full understanding of the Will's terms and that these in fact came from Mr Everall, who had put together the Will.

In the High Court, Judge David Cooke said: "I am satisfied that Mr Everall used his relationship with David to isolate David from others, and that his motive in doing so appears to have been to prevent David from being exposed to the influence of those who were, or were perceived by him to be, opposed to or questioning of Mr Everall's actions. Mr Everall's response to what he perceived as criticising or calling into question what he had done seems to have been, on a number of occasions, to make accusations or complaints against those he regarded as opposed to him.

He complained to the county council about social workers opposing David's discharge from hospital, when that discharge was against medical advice. He complained about the same social workers expressing doubts about David's testamentary capacity, when such doubts were plainly reasonable and when his motivation appeared to be to remove obstacles to making a Will in his favour."

These sorts of cases highlight how important it is to make sure your Will completely states how you want your estates to be distributed. With a clear and professionally written Will, your estates can be dealt with as smoothly as possible, with the likelihood of loved ones being unintentionally excluded reduced when it comes to their inheritance. People must understand the benefits of planning ahead, no matter what your age is or how healthy you are.

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