Daughter moved pen in dying mum’s hand to sign whole £700,000 estate over to her

A son has won a court fight for half of a £700,000 will after a video emerged of his sister guiding their dying mum’s hand as she signed over her fortune.

Margaret Baverstock, 76, was so ill she could ‘barely flicker an eyelid’ by the time she supposedly cut off son John, 61, and left everything to daughter Lisa, 55, in March 2021.

When their mum died eight days later, Lisa inherited the estate, including Mrs Baverstock’s house in Herne Hill, south London.

John challenged the will, arguing the footage 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’.

Judge Jane Evans-Gordon agreed that Mrs Baverstock ‘had no idea what was going on’ when she signed the will and declared it invalid, handing John half of the estate.

During the trial, Central London County Court heard Margaret had been diagnosed with dementia in 2014 and made her last will ‘on her deathbed’.

Electrical compliance manager John claimed that, in the run-up to his mum’s death, Lisa had grown resentful towards him, effectively excluding him from his mother’s house.

And 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.

Videos of the will being signed, produced for the court by Lisa herself, also cast doubt on its validity, showing their mum struggling through her final testament while ‘terminally ill’.

The films showed former care worker Margaret could only signal her assent to the most basic questions by saying ‘yeah’ or by simply grunting.

John’s barrister, Mark Jones, described Lisa as ‘repeatedly attempting to place a pen into her mother’s right hand in a manner by which the deceased could hold or grip the same’.

‘She finally placed a pen between her fingers…and placed first her right hand and then her left hand over the deceased’s hand,’ he added.

‘By force and motion of her own left hand’ she then ‘propelled’ her mother’s writing hand to mark the will, he explained.

The will itself was a homemade document printed from an online template and drafted by Lisa, naming her as Margaret’s executor and sole beneficiary.

Declaring the will invalid, the judge said the video showed that Margaret could barely ‘flicker an eyelid’ when one of the witnesses began reading out its contents, adding that the pensioner did not read the document herself.

‘She could not sign it herself because she was unable to hold the pen or move her hand to write her name,’ she said.

‘Lisa manipulated her hand and herself physically caused the deceased’s hand to move and make marks on the document.’

The judge added: ‘I am satisfied that the deceased had no idea what was going on. She was unable to act independently and, although she responded with a “yeah” or even a grunt when addressed as mum, that was simply a response to being directly addressed and didn’t indicate consent to signing the will or acknowledging its contents.

‘She looked completely blank during the reading of the will and on all save one occasion she only responded to her daughter.

‘At no point did Margaret ask Lisa for help in signing the will or direct her to sign the will on her behalf.

‘Nobody ensured that she understood what was happening by asking her questions about the contents of the will or asking her to tell them her wishes, and she cannot fairly be said to have signed the will.’

On top of finding that the will wasn’t properly executed, the judge found that Margaret lacked the necessary ‘testamentary capacity’ and didn’t ‘know and approve’ the contents of the will.

‘The deceased was also extremely frail and on her deathbed. In these circumstances, it was necessary to question Margaret to ensure her understanding,’ she added.

‘Merely reading out the document and asking if she understood it was not enough.’

With no other known will in existence, the judge held that Margaret Baverstock died ‘intestate’, which means brother and sister must now split her £700,000 assets down the middle.

Lisa must also pay John’s legal fees, estimated at up to £80,000.

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