Michael Tringham reports on invalid, void & forged wills
Two Court of Appeal decisions in long-running disputes have averted one intestacy and confirmed another.
Martin Lavin’s 2004 death-bed will was first declared invalid and his six-figure estate intestate in 2009 by Mr Geoffrey Vos QC. At the 2011 retrial fresh evidence enabled Vos J (as he had by then become) to accept the will on the grounds that Anne, Martin’s sister and sole beneficiary, had held his shaking hand to steady it while he signed. Now that decision is overturned.
Explaining why Martin’s 2002 will is to be admitted to probate, Lord Justice Lewison said (Barrett v Bem [2012] EWCA Civ 52, [2012] All ER (D) 175 (Jan)): “The testator must make some…positive and discernible communication (verbal or non-verbal) that he wishes the will to be signed on his behalf by the third party…There is no finding here that Martin asked Anne to step in and sign the will; or that Anne asked Martin whether she should sign the will before she ‘stepped in’…I echo the judge’s view that it is plainly undesirable
