Michael Tringham considers some contentious probate cases
A disinherited daughter has failed to have her late mother declared intestate.
Mrs Kunvarben Chotubhai Patel, who came to the UK from Kenya in 1967 and did not speak fluent English, gave instructions to a Cheltenham will writer in Gujurati, conveyed via a family friend fluent in both English and Gujurati. Her daughter Prabha Patel, claimed that the testatrix did not fully understand the terms of the will—which left her £200,000 estate to her three sons, excluding her four daughters—and would never have taken the drastic step of excluding her daughters without first consulting them—particularly since her husband would have disapproved.
But Judge David Hodge QC said Mrs Patel was a “timid” personality who might not have wished to “tell her daughters to their faces” that she was leaving them nothing. There was no evidence of any suspicious circumstances in the way the will was drawn up and executed and Mrs Patel had a clear picture of what was happening. “I am satisfied on the evidence that she did know and approve of the contents of her will.
