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 Wilsons team report that the case turned on two points:
