The Rise of Statutory Wills and the Limits of Best Interests Decision-Making in Inheritance

Modern Law Review

Volumn 78, Issue 6, 2015, Pages 945-970

  Harding, Rosie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Best Interests; Inheritance; Mental Capacity; Statutory Wills; UN CRPD

Indexed keywords

EID: 84946399637     PISSN: 00267961     EISSN: 14682230     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2230.12156     Document Type: Article

References (121)

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2. M. B. Leslie, 'The Myth of Testamentary Freedom' (1996) 38 Ariz L Rev 235
3. Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
4. G. Douglas, 'Family Provision and Family Practices - The Discretionary Regime of the Inheritance Act of England and Wales' (2014) 4 Oñati Socio-Legal Series 222
5. Wills Act 1837, s 9 (as amended)
6. Law Commission, Inheritance and Trustees Powers Bill Impact Assessment Law Com IA 0012 (2011)
7. Law Commission, Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death Law Com No 331 (2011)
8. For the list of unclaimed estates, which is updated daily, see (last accessed 6 March 2015).https://www.gov.uk/government/ statistical-data-sets/unclaimed-estates-list
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11. R. Kerridge, 'Wills Made in Suspicious Circumstances: the Problem of the Vulnerable Testator' (2000) 59 Cambridge LJ 310
12. Banks v Goodfellow (1870) LR 5 QB 549. The Banks v Goodfellow test for testamentary capacity survived the Mental Capacity Act 2005, although the two tests are closely linked, and a person who lacks testamentary capacity may well lack capacity to make other financial and personal welfare decisions.
13. Kenward v Adams (1975) The Times 29 November 1975
14. Hoff v Atherton [2004] EWCA Civ 1554 at [48]
15. Key v Key [2010] EWHC 408 (Ch) at [8]
16. Kerridge n 9 above2000
17. Kerridge (2009), n 11 above, 86.
18. Law Commission, Twelfth Programme of Law Reform Law Com No 354 (2014), Law Commission, Wills (2015) at http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/wills/ (last accessed 15 September 2015
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23. Re D (Statutory Will) [2010] EWHC 2159 (Ch); [2012] Ch 57
24. A. Ward and J. Stavert, 'Can an intervention order be granted for purposes of executing a will?' 39 Essex Street Mental Capacity Law Newsletter January 2014, 31-32http:// www.39essex.com/docs/newsletters/mc_law_newsletter_january_2014.pdf
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26. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted 13 December 2006, entered into force 3 May 2008) 2515 UNTS 3 (CRPD). CRPD, Art 12 provides for the right of 'Equal recognition before the law' for people with disabilities (including people with intellectual disabilities), and was a particularly contentious provision during discussions that led to the convention. Disagreements arose because of the challenges the right to equal enjoyment of legal capacity for disabled people posed to settled understandings about the distinction between legal capacity and mental capacity. See further: A. Dhanda, 'Legal Capacity in the Disability Rights Convention: Stranglehold of the Past or Lodestar of the Future?' (2006-7) Syracuse J Int'l Law & Com 429. The proper interpretation of Article 12 was also the subject of the first 'General Comment' on the convention by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities, General Comment No 1 on Article 12: Equal recognition before the law CRPD/C/GC/1 (2014).
27. P. Bartlett, 'The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and Mental Health Law' (2012) 75 MLR 752
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31. M. Donnelly, 'Best Interests, Patient Participation and the Mental Capacity Act 2005' (2009) 17 Med L Rev 1
32. J. Harrington, 'Deciding best interests: Medical progress, clinical judgment and the 'good family' (2003) Web Journal of Current Legal Issues 3
33. H. Brown and L. Marchant, 'Using the Mental Capacity Act in Complex Cases' (2013) 18 Tizard Learning Disability Review 60
34. S. Choudhury, 'Best Interest in the MCA 2005 - What can Healthcare Law Learn from Family Law?' (2008) 16 Health Care Analysis 240
35. M. Dunn, 'Commentary on "Using the Mental Capacity Act in complex cases"' (2013) 18 Tizard Learning Disability Review 70
36. S. Holm and A. Edgar, 'Best Interest: A Philosophical Critique' (2008) 16 Health Care Analysis 197
37. P. Fennell, 'Best Interests and Treatment for Mental Disorder' (2008) 16 Health Care Analysis 255
38. CRPD, Art 12(3)
39. CRPD, Art 12(4)
40. S. Barber, 'Re C (A Patient) revisited: how strong is the family's claim?' (1996) 1 PCB 34
41. B. Rich, 'Re P: statutory wills: an epitaph for the "lucid interval"' (2009) 3 PCB 210
42. A. Palin, 'Advising the disabled: Part 3: lasting powers of attorney, deputyship appointments, statutory wills and benefits' (2010) 3 PCB 197
43. S. Hamilton, 'Best Interests in Statutory Will and Gift Applications: Practical Implications of Re G (TJ)' (2011) 1 Elder Law Journal 331
44. P. Hewitt, S. Richards and N. Stourton, 'The Court of Protection, charities and the evolution of best interests' (2012) 2 Elder Law Journal 264
45. D. Lush, 'The evolution of the statutory will jurisdiction' (2014) 4 Elder Law Journal 173
46. HC Deb 5 February 1969 col 416777
47. Law Reform (Succession) Act 1995, s 3 and 4. There was a period between 1982 and 1996 where 'any devise or bequest to the former spouse shall lapse' but this led to the potential for injustice in some cases. An example is Re Sinclair [1985] Ch 446, where the failure of a will following divorce meant that the estate passed to family on intestacy, rather than to a charity that could have benefited if the rules were differently formulated.
48. J. Finch, L. Hayes, J. Mason, J. Masson and L. Wallis, Wills, Inheritance, and Families (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996) 164
49. In Re P (Statutory Will) [2009] EWHC 163 (Ch)
50. Re D (J) n 55 above, 243-244
51. In Re L (WJG) [1966] Ch 135, 142 (Cross J)
52. Re C (a patient) [1991] 3 All ER 866; Re S (Gifts by Mental Patient) [1997] 2 FCR 320
53. Re C (a patient) n 63 above, 870
54. Finch et al, n 56 above
55. Re C (a patient) n 63 above, 872
56. Re S (Gifts by Mental Patient) n 63 above
57. Mental Health Act 1983, s 95
58. Re S (Gifts by Mental Patient) n 63 above, 323
59. Hoffman J.'s comments in Re C that 'there is still ample scope for a substantial distribution which would give the family a chance of saving inheritance tax' (n 63 above, 871), or the comments from Ferris J that 'the will ought, I think, to provide expressly for the position as to inheritance tax on the inter vivos gifts in the event of the patient dying within seven years of the gifts' (Re S n 63 above, 324)
60. P. Bartlett, Blackstone's Guide to the Mental Capacity Act (Oxford: OUP, 2nd ed, 2008
61. Law Commission, Mental Incapacity Law Com no 231 (1995)
62. Re M (Statutory Will) [2009] EWHC 2525 (Fam); 1 WLR 3442011
63. Re M (Statutory Will) n 87 above at [38]2009
64. S. McGuinness and M. Brazier, 'Respecting the Living Means Respecting the Dead too' (2008) 28 OJLS 297
65. Re D (Statutory Will) n 27 above
66. Re G (TJ) WTLR 2312011
67. Re JC WTLR 12112012
68. Re M (Statutory Will) n 87 above; Re D (Statutory Will) n 27 above
69. NT v FS and others EWHC 684 (COP); [2013] WTLR 8672013
70. Kerridge (2009), n 11 above, chapter 8
71. Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, s 1 (2). See Douglas n 4 above for a detailed discussion of the operation of this discretionary regime2014
72. NT v FS others n 100 above at [90]
73. B. Sloan, Informal Carers and Private Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2013
74. NT v FS others n 100 above at [1]
75. Treadwell (Deceased) WL 4788832 at [38] where Senior Judge Lush stated 'As often happens in statutory will proceedings, a compromise was reached among the parties2013
76. MCA, s 4(6)(a)-©
77. NT v FS others n 100 above at [79]
78. Finch et al, n 56 above; J. Finch and J. Mason, Passing on: Kinship and Inheritance in England (London: Routledge, 2000
79. K. Rowlingson and S. McKay, Attitudes to Inheritance in Britain (Bristol: Policy Press, 2005
80. A. Humphrey, L. Mills, G. Morrell, G. Douglas and H. Woodward, Inheritance and the Family: Attitudes to Will-Making and Intestacy (NatCen, 2010) at http:// www.natcen.ac.uk/media/23979/inheritance-family-attitudes-will-making.pdf
81. Humphrey, n 118 above, 45: whereas 40% of respondents considered that all or most of an intestate estate should go to a cohabiting partner when s/he had been living with the deceased for two years, the proportion rose to 74% for cohabitants who had been living together for ten years
82. Re Meek EWCOP 12014
83. Treadwell (Deceased) n 115 above; Re Meek n 122 above
84. Martin et al, n 35 above
85. Re F (An Adult: Sterilisation) [1990] 2 AC 1; Donnelly, n 36 above
86. H. Reece, 'The paramountcy principle. Consensus or Construct?' (1996) 49 CLP 267
87. J. Herring, 'The Human Rights Act and the Welfare Principle in Family Law - Conflicting or Complementary?' (1999) 11 CFLQ 223
88. J. Eekelaar, 'Beyond the Welfare Principle' (2002) 14 CFLQ 237
89. S. Elliston, The Best Interests of the Child in Healthcare (Abingdon: Routledge-Cavendish, 2007
90. J. Fortin, Children's Rights and the Developing Law (Cambridge: CUP, 3rd ed, 2009
91. Children Act 1989, s 1
92. CRPD, Art 7(2); UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Art 3(1): 'In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.'
93. J. Coggon and S. Holm 'Best Interests: A reappraisal' Special Issue of Health Care Analysis 193(2008) 16
94. S. Choudhury, 'Best Interest in the MCA 2005 - What can Healthcare Law Learn from Family Law?' (2008) 16 Health Care Analysis 240
95. Reece, n 116 above
96. J. Harrington, 'Deciding best interests: Medical progress, clinical judgment and the "good family"' (2003) Web Journal of Current Legal Issues 3-6
97. Eekelaar, n 128 above
98. Re F (Sterilisation) n 127 above; Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993] AC 789, 1 FLR 10261993
99. Sir James Munby, 'Protecting the rights of vulnerable and incapacitous adults - the role of the courts: an example of judicial law-making' [2014] CFLQ 63
100. Re MB (An Adult: Medical Treatment) [1997] 2 FCR 541
101. Donnelly, n 36 above
102. Munby, n 139 above
103. R. Gillon, 'Ethics needs principles - four can encompass the rest - and respect for autonomy should be "first among equals"' (2003) 29 J Med Ethics 307
104. P. Fennell, 'Best Interests and Treatment for Mental Disorder' (2008) 16 Health Care Analysis 255
105. RB v Brighton & Hove City Council EWCA Civ 5612014
106. Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v James UKSC 672013
107. RB v Brighton & Hove City Council n 144 above; Dorset County Council v EH EWHC 7842009
108. R. Harding, 'Legal constructions of dementia: discourses of autonomy at the margins of capacity' (2012) 34 JSWFL 425
109. Bartlettz, n 34 above
110. Martin et al, n 35 above
111. Flynn and Arstein-Kerslake, n 35 above
112. M. Bach and L. Kerzner, 'A New Paradigm for Protecting Autonomy and the Right to Legal Capacity', Law Commission of Ontario (October 2010http://www.lco-cdo.org/en/disabilitiescall- for-papers-bach-kerzner
113. Munby, n 139 above
114. Law Commission, Mental Incapacity Law n 85 above
115. Law Commission, Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death n 6 above
116. In Re Davey n 53 above; Re M (Statutory Will) n 87 above
117. Re C (a patient) n 63 above; Re S (Gifts by Mental Patient) n 63 above. For an interesting recent discussion in such a case, see Re AB, Notification of Statutory Will Application EWCOP B392013
118. Treadwell (Deceased) n 115 above
119. For example, NT v FS others n 100 above
120. See Douglas, n 4 above
121. Law Commission, Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death n 6 above