Mrs Cromwell lived at home alone and was 89 years old. Her husband died several years ago, and she was lonely. She was very frail, suffered from glaucoma and was only able to walk very short distances in her home with the aid of a walker. She could no longer drive and relied heavily on others to take her anywhere.
Mrs Cromwell had two children, Jack and Tom. Jack and Tom had never got on well. Tom was a successful businessman and Jack had always been quite envious of him growing up.
Jack visited Mrs Cromwell regularly as he lived in the same village. As Mrs Cromwell could not drive and wasn’t very mobile, Jack took her to her appointments, brought her shopping, helped her maintain the property and helped her with any paperwork and helped her with any medication she needed to take.
Tom rarely visited his mother as he lived further away, and Tom also had a severely autistic child and so it was difficult for him to visit.
Mrs Cromwell had a will which stated that her estate be divided equally between Jack and Tom. The will contained a provision that each of her grandchildren would receive £5,000 on her death. Jack had one child and Tom had three children.
Jack thought it was unfair that Tom should get 50% of his mother’s estate when she died, and that Tom’s family would receive more money from the estate as Tom had three children whereas he only had one.
Jack told his mother that she should change her will as it was unfair that Tom would get the same as Jack when Jack did so much more for his mother. Jack repeatedly told his mother that he would stop visiting her as much unless she changed her will so that he would get more than Tom when she died. Jack also told his mother that Tom’s family did not care about her as they never visited her and in particular Tom’s wife hated her.
Although Mrs Cromwell did not want to change her will as she loved both of her children and understood why it was more difficult for Tom to visit her, she was very afraid that if she didn’t then Jack would stop visiting her and she would no longer be able to stay in her own home. She would not be able to cope without Jack’s help and she was scared she would have no one to speak to anymore if he stopped visiting her.
Jack arranged for Mrs Cromwell to see a solicitor to make a new will. Jack explained to the solicitor that his mother wanted to change her will to reflect how much more Jack helped her than Tom. Mrs Cromwell agreed with everything Jack said as she felt that she had no other choice. The new will stated that Jack would receive 90% of the estate and Tom would receive 10% of the estate. The new will also left a gift of £10,000 to Jack’s child and no money to Tom’s children.
It was only after Mrs Cromwell died that Tom discovered that his mother had made a new will. Tom disputed the validity of the new will on the basis that Jack had manipulated their mother into changing her will. He asserted that Jack pressured his mother into changing her will at a time when his mother was elderly and frail and reliant upon Jack to care for her. Jack knew how much his mother relied upon him and that the threat of him not helping her anymore would be enough to force her into changing her will in the way that he wanted. Tom also alleged that Jack had told lies about him to their mother.
