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17 November 2017 / Henrietta Mason , Paola Fudakowska
Issue: 7770 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
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Wills & probate update

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Paola Fudakowska & Henrietta Mason return with an update on family rifts, mistakes & undue influence

  • Undue influence always has to be proved; it is never presumed.
  • Whether an award could be reversed 10 years after death

In Ball v Ball [2017] EWHC 1750 (Ch), [2017] All ER (D) 31 (Aug) Barbara Olive Ball (Mrs Ball) made her last will on 27 May 1992. She died some years later on 8 November 2013.

Mrs Ball had 11 children with her husband, James Sayles Ball, who predeceased her. There was a rift in the family dating back to 1991, when three of the children, Barbara, Debra and Nigel, the claimants to this action (the claimants), reported their father to the police for sexually abusing them when they were younger. Mr Ball was prosecuted and pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of the second claimant and to incest and indecent assault on the third claimant. There was apparently a suspended prison sentence.

Mrs Ball’s will excluded the claimants from benefit, dividing her estate between the remaining

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