fbpx

Psychiatrist Approves Marriage for Alzheimer's Patient

4th May 2018 By Arman Khosravi

Remarriages are a common source of disagreement and acrimony among family members and dementia is an increasingly prevalent issue, so it is unsurprising that when both were present, the result was a legal dispute in which the Court of Protection had to decide whether a man living with dementia could marry his long-term partner, with whom he cohabited.

The long-divorced man has lived with his partner for more than 20 years. His will already passes to her a considerable legacy, the right to live in his house for two years after his death and two thirds of his pension. The rest of his sizeable estate will pass to his daughters if his current will remains in force.

Marriage revokes a will, however, so were he to marry and not make a new will, on his death his entire estate would be distributed according to the rules of intestacy. The effect of that would be that his daughters would inherit less than under his existing will.

When the man announced his intention to marry his partner, his daughters sought an injunction to prevent the marriage from taking place, arguing that he lacks the mental capacity to marry because he has Alzheimer’s disease. The case was referred to the Court, which arranged for him to be assessed by a consultant psychiatrist.

Following the psychiatrist’s conclusion that the man fully understood the implications of his decision to marry, including the financial impact the marriage would have on his daughters, the Court agreed that the marriage could take place.

It is not clear whether the man’s dementia is so advanced that he would be considered incapable of making a valid new will.

Source: Concious

Latest News

Another Sad Tale of a Farmer's Disinherited Children – High Court Ruling

24th November, 2023 By

The tale of a devoted son labouring for years on a family farm only to be cut out of his father's will is so often told as to be almost a cliché. However, as a High Court ruling showed, such stories are often reflected in the sad and recurring reality of agricultural inheritance disputes. When he died, a father was the beneficial owner of a 20 per cent stake in his family farm. He also held a 25 per cent share of a company that ran a market gardening business...

Family Judge Treads the Blurred Boundary Between Life and Death

21st November, 2023 By

The ability of modern medical technology to keep patients' hearts beating and their lungs ventilating has led to a blurring of the boundary between life and death. As a High Court ruling showed, it sometimes falls to family judges to make the desperately hard decision as to when that line has been crossed. The case concerned a young man who fell to the ground after being assaulted in a pub garden, sustaining a catastrophic brain injury. He was admitted to hospital in a deep coma and, following weeks of observation...

False Claim to Be a Cash Buyer Ruled Fraudulent in Ground-Breaking Case

16th November, 2023 By

In coming to the aid of a frail and elderly householder, the High Court has ruled in a landmark case that she was on the receiving end of a fraudulent misrepresentation when a would-be purchaser of her home was falsely described to her as a cash buyer. A copy of a contract before the Court indicated that the woman, aged in her 80s, had signed a contract agreeing to the sale of her home for £840,000. Following a purported exchange of contracts, the purchaser, an investment company, launched proceedings against...

Sometimes Parental Love is Not Enough – Court Sanctions Boy's Adoption

13th November, 2023 By

Parents may be worthy of praise and deeply love their children, but it sadly does not always follow that they are able to provide them with a stable home. The High Court made that point in sanctioning a little boy's placement for adoption. Due to concerns that he was not receiving a good enough standard of parenting, a local authority placed him in temporary foster care and sought care and placement orders. His parents, although separated, staunchly resisted plans for his adoption, arguing that his mother was able to look...