Man wins 700,000 battle over mother’s deathbed will

An electrician has won a 700,000 will fight after a video emerged of his younger sister holding and propelling” their dying mother’s hand as she signed over her fortune on her deathbed.

- NEVILE AYLING

Margaret Baverstock was so ill she could barely flicker an eyelid” when, in March 2021, aged 76, she signed a will cutting out her son, John Baverstock, and leaving everything to daughter, Lisa.

John, now 61, was left with nothing from his mother’s estate when she died eight days later, leaving all her wealth, including her house in Guernsey Grove, Herne Hill, south London, to his now 55-year-old sister. He challenged the will in court on the basis that a video of the will’s signing showed it was “not the independent act of the deceased, but she was effectively forced by the physical actions of Lisa into participating in a pantomime of due execution of a document she did not comprehend”.

After seeing the video of Lisa guiding and manipulating her mum’s hand, a judge has now declared the will invalid, handing John half of his mother’s money. Ruling on the case, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon said she was satisfied that Margaret “had no idea what was going on” at the time the document was signed, rendering the will invalid.

The judge said Margaret was suffering from advanced dementia, arthritis and suspected lung congestion and was in no position to sign her name or even understand what she was being asked to sign. During the trial, Central London County Court heard Margaret had been diagnosed with dementia in 2014 and made her last will “on her deathbed” only eight days before she died, in March 2021.

Electrical compliance manager John claimed that, in the run-up to his mother’s death, Lisa had grown resentful towards him, effectively excluding him from his mother’s house. After learning he had been cut out of the will, he challenged it on grounds that she was too mentally frail to understand what she was doing or signing.