Hospital Will

Flugelhorn

Mojisola said:

Keep_pedalling said:

The medical staff were treating him were cancer specialists it does not make them expert an  witness on on someone’s mental capacity.

If they were discussing his health needs with him and accepting that he was compos mentis enough to make his own decisions about that, he could make his own decisions about other matters as well.

the problem with "capacity" is that it is time and event specific - a patient may have capacity to decide if they want or don't want a pain killing injection / something to eat / to walk along the corridor / intravenous treatment / admission to hospital etc and they can equally change their mind and no want the same another time 
 Assessing whether they understand and are sure what they want done with a will is another matter and not usually sort of thing clinical staff dealing with on day to day basis though the EOL nurses will have had a good idea. those witnessing the signature will have just been that, witnesses to the signature. 

jasdog

Flugelhorn said:

Mojisola said:

Keep_pedalling said:

The medical staff were treating him were cancer specialists it does not make them expert an  witness on on someone’s mental capacity.

If they were discussing his health needs with him and accepting that he was compos mentis enough to make his own decisions about that, he could make his own decisions about other matters as well.

the problem with "capacity" is that it is time and event specific - a patient may have capacity to decide if they want or don't want a pain killing injection / something to eat / to walk along the corridor / intravenous treatment / admission to hospital etc and they can equally change their mind and no want the same another time 
 Assessing whether they understand and are sure what they want done with a will is another matter and not usually sort of thing clinical staff dealing with on day to day basis though the EOL nurses will have had a good idea. those witnessing the signature will have just been that, witnesses to the signature. 

Thank you . My uncle had incredible capacity right up to the day he died he spent his final weeks making arrangments for lots of things . It gave him alot of satisfaction to be able leave instuctions about many things, his Will just been one of them . 

GDB2222

I would suggest that you stop replying to this thread Jasdog. You asked a question, and you have had some useful replies. You don’t need to justify yourself to this forum. 

Malthusian

jasdog said:

Thank you . My uncle had incredible capacity right up to the day he died he spent his final weeks making arrangments for lots of things .

But not for a laptop or a pen and paper to be brought into the room so he could communicate with the solicitor without using his ravaged voice, apparently.

jasdog

Wonder if the solictor had pen and paper.

Brynsam

Doubtless that will become clear when the solicitors acting for the charities demand sight of his files in relation to this matter.

Middlestitch

Is this supposed to be a real scenario, or some sort of homework question?

BooJewels

I can offer no advice whatsoever, but I'm struggling to grasp how the charities even know about it?

Does a Solicitor not have some sort of duty of confidentiality to a client?  Surely the content of a superseded Will is only between the Solicitor and client.  I know that Wills are on public record after Probate, but the dispute is about the content of an earlier document that hasn't been published, so surely it should be confidential?  Or did the deceased advise the charities in advance and when they found out that he'd passed, wondered where their bequest had gone?

GDB2222

BooJewels said:

I can offer no advice whatsoever, but I'm struggling to grasp how the charities even know about it?

Does a Solicitor not have some sort of duty of confidentiality to a client?  Surely the content of a superseded Will is only between the Solicitor and client.  I know that Wills are on public record after Probate, but the dispute is about the content of an earlier document that hasn't been published, so surely it should be confidential?  Or did the deceased advise the charities in advance and when they found out that he'd passed, wondered where their bequest had gone?

That's very likely, from my experience. Charities tend to be quite proactive in soliciting and managing bequests, and they may well have been aware of the old will. 

BooJewels

Thanks @GDB2222 - I was thinking about the free wills events some charities hold, where they'll draw up your will in return for a bequest - but that clearly didn't happen in this case.  It feels a bit unseemly to me.