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Two nephews are secured a ₤ 400,000 will contest the fortune of a 'houseproud' widow, who disinherited one side of her family after they recommended she go into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his wife Catherine, who lived just a couple of minutes from her south London home.
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But her Michigan-based great-nephew, 39-year-old Ben Chiswick, has actually now released a quote to inherit the lot himself - in spite of not checking out and even speaking to her over the phone since his relocation to the US 8 years ago.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had been because of inherit her fortune under a previous will written practically 40 years ago in 1986 when he was an infant, but was drastically disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row erupted after his parents suggested Ms Stock hang around in a care home while they took pleasure in a three-week holiday.

Fighting to reinstate the previous will, Mr Chiswick declares Ms Stock, who he states was a 'component in his childhood,' was too stricken by dementia to correctly understand what she was doing when she altered her testament.

However, Simon and his partner are fighting the case, claiming Mr Chiswick - who has lived in the US because 2017 - had no 'significant relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had actually been 'the nearby thing to a son she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and occasionally 'persistent' Ms Stock had a deep emotional attachment to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having actually shared it with her hubby Samuel until his death in 2001.

Ben Chiswick, 39, envisioned right with daddy Brent, is challenging Doreen Stock's will in the courts after she disinherited him a year before her death

Doreen Stock, 86, died childless in 2021 and left her entire estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (envisioned), and his better half Catherine

Without any kids of her own, Ms Stock's very first will, made in 1986, left her estate to Mr Chiswick, son of her niece Patricia Chiswick and hubby Brent.

The estate principally includes the Mottingham home, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000.

The court heard Ms Stock had had a great relationship with the Chiswicks, who assisted her with her shopping and visited her regularly.

She even made an enduring power of attorney in their favour, but before she passed away revoked the file and changed her will, leaving whatever to a nephew on her other half's side.

Challenging the will, Mr Chiswick declares that his great-aunt's dementia in her final years implies there is severe doubt whether she had the needed capacity to make the changes.

And he stated the reality there was no discussion with his side of the family about the new will suggested 'something not right' about her modification of mind.

'Doreen and I had an actually delighted relationship and she understood that leaving her estate to me would make an enormous difference to my life,' he stated in his evidence.

For Simon and Catherine, barrister James McKean told the court that Ms Stock had also been close to Simon, who was 'the closest thing to a son she had,' contributing to his school charges as a kid.

And although she formerly had a close relationship with Mr Chiswick's moms and dads, that was ruined when they recommended she go into a care home in 2019.

Patricia had then scheduled a 'capability evaluation' for her auntie, which the barrister stated caused Ms Stock fearing her self-reliance was being threatened and eventually changing her will.

The estate mainly includes the Mottingham house, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000

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The court heard there had been 'building resentment' with the method her power of attorney was being administered, which 'lastly boiled over in the summer season of 2019 when the Chiswicks made an ill-judged - though perhaps well-intentioned - tip to Doreen that she invest a duration in property care.

'Doreen was, by all accounts, jealously independent. It is little wonder that she discovered the proposition to be and offensive.

'No doubt Doreen was fretted about the prospect of entering into a home, then was asked to undergo the capability evaluation, and put 2 and 2 together.'

Within weeks of the assessment, which resulted in a report mentioning she 'lacked capability,' she had begun steps to withdraw the power of lawyer and make a brand-new will in Simon and Catherine's favour, he told the judge.

Quizzing Patricia Chiswick in the witness box, he included: 'Doreen loved her home and it had been her and Samuel's home before his death. There was a deep emotional connection to that residential or commercial property.

'Saying to Doreen that she should leave that residential or commercial property and spend a long time in a care home stank to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's perspective, this need to have looked a real hazard to her self-reliance.'

But Patricia denied upsetting the pensioner, firmly insisting that the strategy was just ever for a short break in a care home while she and her hubby went on holiday.

'It was simply an idea because we do not usually disappear for three weeks at a time, and I believe she had been quite weak and her health was deteriorating in basic,' she said.

'I was concerned about leaving her and I believed it would be rather good if she might go someplace where she could be looked after while we were away.

'It was definitely stressed out that it was for 3 weeks. There was no tip she was going to remain there forever.'

The Chiswicks did not visit Ms Stock again in between the capacity assessment in 2019 and her death in May 2021.

For Patricia's kid Mr Chiswick, who is the claimant in the case, barrister Simon Lane stated that, at the time she made the new will, she was 'vulnerable and was acting out of character.'

The 2019 evaluation conducted after the tip of a care home relocation had actually led to a professional's finding that she 'lacked capacity,' he said.

But Mr McKean said the assessment wanted, with Ms Stock answering with 'prickly hostility' when she was quizzed about things that made no sense to her, such as a fire which never ever actually occurred.

Other evaluations around the exact same time had actually resulted in findings that she did have capacity, although she was experiencing 'mild' dementia,' he said.

'Doreen might have had some memory problems, but capacity and memory are different monsters,' he stated.

'The court will struggle to find any proof of impaired cognition or reasoning. On the contrary, Doreen's behaviour, worths and thinking corresponded and plausible at all times.'

He stated there was factor for her to choose to alter her will, the last being made more than thirty years previously, and that by then Mr Chiswick - living and dealing with the other side of the Atlantic - would have been 'far from her mind as a recipient.'

He had not seen her again and even spoken on the phone after transferring to the US, while many of the proof of their relationship came from when he was a kid.

On the other hand, Mr Stock and his wife had been able to visit her regularly, living not far from her in Eltham, south London, he stated.

'The court can be shocked neither by the making of the contested will, nor by Doreen's choice of recipients,' he added.

The judge is expected to provide her judgment on the case at a later date.