Claire van Overdijk successful in High Court testamentary capacity challenge

Claire van Overdijk successfully represented Ian Parsonage in Parsonage (acting as personal representative in the estate) v Parsonage & Ors [2019] EWHC 2362 (Ch), which involved a challenge to the validity of the last Will of Beryl Parsonage, a former matron, who died in 2015 at the age of 86. Mrs Parsonage had indicated in her last Will a wish to divide her estate equally between her children and revoked an earlier will drawn up in 2010.  Duncan Parsonage challenged the validity of the last Will on the grounds of testamentary capacity and lack of knowledge and approval, and argued that the earlier 2010 Will should be admitted to probate. This would have left him close to half a million pounds better off and his siblings with just £35,000 each. In a lengthy judgment His Honour Judge Barker QC ruled against Duncan Parsonage and held that while Mrs Parsonage was suffering from dementia when the second will was drafted in 2011 her condition had not adversely affected her mental capacity to set out her final wishes.

The judgment can be found here.

Press coverage by The Telegraph can be found here, coverage by the International Adviser here and coverage by The Financial Times can be found here.

Claire van Overdijk is a specialist public law and private client barrister. If you wish to instruch Claire, please contact Matt Sale (+44 (0)20 7427 4910) or Peter Foad (+44 (0)20 7427 0807).

News 11 Sep, 2019