Banks v Goodfellow test still works

Mrs Justice Falk handed down judgment this week in Clitheroe v Bond [2021] EWHC 1102 (Ch).

Amanda Smallcombe, partner at Birkett Long, which acted for Susan Bond, said Falks J held the test in the 1870 case of Banks v Goodfellow was the correct test to apply when considering testamentary capacity retrospectively, and had not been swept away by the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Lucinda Brown, partner at BDB Pitmans, said practitioners would welcome the clarity the decision brings that a test in use for the past 150 years remains good. Brown said the judgment also provided detail on the proper test for establishing whether a delusion is present, which requires a holistic assessment of the evidence, taking into account the nature of the belief, circumstances and evidential basis for and against it.