Michael Tringham provides an update on family intrigue, delusion & greed
I am indebted to Charlotte Watts of the charity litigation team at Wilsons Solicitors LLP for highlighting a recent case about a family unhappy about a legacy to a charity.
She says of Ritchie, Ritchie and Others v National Osteoporosis Society and Others [2009] EWHC 709 (Ch) that “challenges based on testamentary capacity are becoming ever more common, and this increase is likely to continue as the population ages”.
Mrs Ritchie’s “delusions”
By a 1998 will, prepared by her solicitor eight years before she died, Mrs Ritchie left her entire £2.5m estate to the National Osteoporosis Society, apart from a £5,000 legacy to her local church. She had told her solicitor that her children (who received nothing) were well provided for and also referred to a history of violence towards her.
The Ritchie children claimed that their late mother suffered from a disorder of the mind which had poisoned her affections against them and these delusions had caused her to disinherit them. The
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