Blood is not necessarily thicker than water where will validity is concerned, observes Emma Myers
Pensioner, Ronald Butcher, left more than a monetary legacy when he died. The challenge to his decision to change his will late in the day cutting out family members in favour of someone who’d done him a good turn has highlighted important issues around validating wills and the court’s attitude relatives’ claims.
Seventy-five-year-old Mr Butcher, a bachelor from Enfield in north London, changed his will to disinherit his cousin and two family friends, instead leaving his entire £500,000 estate to a builder who had reportedly cleaned his gutter for free.
The earlier beneficiaries claimed that Mr Butcher did not know and approve of the will’s contents. However, their inability to provide evidence to support this led the court to uphold the will in favour of builder Daniel Bryan Sharp.
Mr Butcher and Mr Sharp met in 2009 and remained friends after the original gutter-clearing job. Mr Sharp of Welling, Kent, would look in on the pensioner whenever he was in the area for a chat about sport and other shared interests.
