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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 suggested she enter into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, died childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his wife Catherine, who lived only a couple of 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 - regardless of not checking out or perhaps speaking with her over the phone because his relocate to the US 8 years earlier.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had actually been because of inherit her fortune under a previous will written almost 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 moms and dads suggested Ms Stock hang around in a care home while they took pleasure in a three-week vacation.

Fighting to renew the previous will, Mr Chiswick declares Ms Stock, who he states was a 'fixture in his youth,' was too stricken by dementia to correctly understand what she was doing when she changed her testimony.

However, Simon and his wife are fighting the case, declaring 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 been 'the nearby thing to a son she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and sometimes 'persistent' 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, imagined right with dad 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 entire estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (envisioned), and his wife Catherine

Without any children 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 hubby Brent.

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

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

She even made a long lasting power of lawyer in their favour, however before she died 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 last years indicates there is serious doubt whether she had the necessary capacity to make the changes.

And he said the fact there was no conversation with his side of the household about the new will suggested 'something not right' about her change of mind.

'Doreen and I had a really happy relationship and she understood that leaving her estate to me would make a huge difference to my life,' he said in his proof.

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

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

Patricia had actually then set up for a 'capacity assessment' for her auntie, which the lawyer stated caused Ms Stock fearing her independence was being threatened and ultimately changing 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 resentment' with the way her power of attorney was being administered, which 'finally 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 period in residential care.

'Doreen was, by all accounts, jealously independent. It is little wonder that she found the proposal to be disconcerting and offending.

'No doubt Doreen was stressed about the possibility of going into a home, then was asked to go through the capability evaluation, and put two and 2 together.'

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

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

'Saying to Doreen that she should leave that residential or commercial property and invest some time in a care home was offensive to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's viewpoint, this must have looked a real danger to her independence.'

But Patricia rejected upsetting the pensioner, firmly insisting that the plan was just ever for a time-out in a care home while she and her hubby went on holiday.

'It was simply a tip since we do not typically go away for 3 weeks at a time, and I believe she had been rather unhealthy and her health was deteriorating in general,' she said.

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

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

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

For Patricia's kid Mr Chiswick, who is the complaintant in the event, barrister Simon Lane stated that, at the time she made the new will, she was 'susceptible and was behaving out of character.'

The 2019 evaluation performed after the recommendation of a care home move had actually led to a specialist's finding that she 'did not have capacity,' he said.

But Mr McKean said the assessment wanted, with Ms Stock responding to with 'irritable hostility' when she was quizzed about things that made no sense to her, such as a fire which never really took place.

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

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

'The court will struggle to discover any proof of impaired cognition or reasoning. On the contrary, Doreen's behaviour, values and thinking were consistent and possible at all times.'

He stated there was reason for her to decide to alter her will, the last being made more than 30 years formerly, which already Mr Chiswick - living and working on 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 moving to the US, while most of the evidence of their relationship came from when he was a child.

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

'The court can be stunned neither by the making of the challenged will, nor by Doreen's choice of recipients,' he included.

The judge is anticipated to offer her judgment on the case at a later date.