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Two nephews are locked in 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, died childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his other half Catherine, who lived just a few minutes from her south London home.

But her Michigan-based great-nephew, 39-year-old Ben Chiswick, has now introduced a quote to inherit the lot himself - in spite of not checking out or perhaps talking to her over the phone considering that his transfer to the US 8 years earlier.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had been due to acquire her fortune under a previous will written nearly 40 years earlier in 1986 when he was a baby, however was considerably disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row emerged after his parents recommended Ms Stock hang around in a care home while they took pleasure in a three-week vacation.

Fighting to restore the previous will, Mr Chiswick claims Ms Stock, who he says was a 'component in his childhood,' was too stricken by dementia to properly understand what she was doing when she changed her testimony.

However, Simon and his partner are combating the case, claiming Mr Chiswick - who has actually lived in the US considering that 2017 - had no 'meaningful relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had been 'the nearest thing to a child she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and occasionally 'stubborn' Ms Stock had a deep psychological accessory to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having shared it with her husband 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, passed away childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (imagined), and his other half Catherine

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

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

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

She even made a long lasting power of lawyer in their favour, but before she passed away revoked the document and changed her will, leaving whatever to a nephew on her husband's side.

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

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

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

For Simon and Catherine, lawyer James McKean told the court that Ms Stock had actually also been close to Simon, who was 'the nearest thing to a son she had,' contributing to his school costs 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 enter into a care home in 2019.

Patricia had actually then set up for a 'capability evaluation' for her auntie, which the lawyer said caused Ms Stock fearing her independence was being threatened and eventually altering her will.

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

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The court heard there had been 'structure animosity' with the method her power of attorney was being administered, which 'finally boiled over in the summer of 2019 when the Chiswicks made an ill-judged - though perhaps well-intentioned - idea 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 worrying and offending.

'No doubt Doreen was fretted about the possibility of going into a home, then was asked to undergo the capacity evaluation, and put two and 2 together.'

Within weeks of the evaluation, which resulted in a report mentioning she 'did not have capacity,' she had actually begun steps to withdraw the power of lawyer and make a brand-new will in Simon and Catherine's favour, he informed the judge.

Quizzing Patricia Chiswick in the witness box, he added: 'Doreen liked her home and it had actually 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 some time in a care home stank to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's viewpoint, this need to have looked a real threat to her independence.'

But Patricia denied disturbing the pensioner, insisting that the strategy was just ever for a time-out in a care home while she and her partner went on vacation.

'It was just a recommendation because we do not usually disappear for three weeks at a time, and I believe she had actually been quite unhealthy and her health was degrading in general,' she said.

'I was concerned about leaving her and I believed it would be quite great if she might go somewhere where she might be cared for while we were away.

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

The Chiswicks did not check out Ms Stock once again in between the capability assessment in 2019 and her death in May 2021.

For Patricia's child Mr Chiswick, who is the complaintant in the event, lawyer Simon Lane said that, at the time she made the new will, she was 'susceptible and was acting out of character.'

The 2019 evaluation performed after the recommendation of a care home relocation had led to a professional's finding that she 'lacked capacity,' he stated.
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But Mr McKean stated the assessment was deficient, with Ms Stock addressing with 'prickly hostility' when she was quizzed about things that made no sense to her, such as a fire which never in fact took place.

Other assessments around the same time had actually led to findings that she did have capacity, although she was suffering with 'moderate' dementia,' he stated.

'Doreen may have had some memory problems, but capacity and memory are various beasts,' he stated.

'The court will have a hard time to find any evidence of impaired cognition or thinking. On the contrary, behaviour, values and thinking corresponded and possible at all times.'

He said there was factor for her to decide to change her will, the last being made more than thirty years previously, and that already Mr Chiswick - living and dealing with the other side of the Atlantic - would have been 'far from her mind as a beneficiary.'

He had not seen her once again or even spoken on the phone after relocating to the US, while most of the proof of their relationship came from when he was a child.

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

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

The judge is anticipated to give her ruling on the case at a later date.