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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 household after they recommended she enter into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her entire 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 launched a quote to acquire the lot himself - regardless of not going to or even talking to her over the phone since his move to the US 8 years back.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had actually been due to inherit her fortune under a previous will composed practically 40 years earlier in 1986 when he was a baby, but was drastically disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row emerged after his parents recommended Ms Stock spend time in a care home while they enjoyed a three-week holiday.

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

However, Simon and his partner are battling the case, declaring Mr Chiswick - who has actually lived in the US because 2017 - had no 'significant relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had actually been 'the nearest 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 emotional attachment to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having shared it with her partner Samuel till his death in 2001.

Ben Chiswick, 39, pictured 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, died childless in 2021 and left her entire estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (imagined), and his spouse Catherine

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

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

The court heard Ms Stock had had an excellent relationship with the Chiswicks, who assisted her with her shopping and visited her routinely.

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

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

And he stated the fact there was no conversation with his side of the family about the new will suggested 'something not right' about her modification of mind.

'Doreen and I had a really delighted relationship and she understood that leaving her estate to me would make an enormous difference to my life,' he stated in his proof.

For Simon and Catherine, lawyer James McKean informed the court that Ms Stock had actually also been close to Simon, who was 'the nearby thing to a son she had,' adding to his school costs as a kid.

And although she previously had a close relationship with Mr Chiswick's moms and dads, that was destroyed when they suggested she go into a care home in 2019.

Patricia had actually then arranged for a 'capacity assessment' for her aunt, which the lawyer stated caused Ms Stock fearing her independence was being threatened and ultimately altering her will.

The estate mainly includes the Mottingham home, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000

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The court heard there had been 'building animosity' with the way her power of lawyer was being administered, which 'lastly boiled over in the summertime of 2019 when the Chiswicks made an ill-judged - though possibly well-intentioned - recommendation to Doreen that she spend a duration in residential care.

'Doreen was, by all accounts, jealously independent. It is little wonder that she discovered the proposal to be alarming and offensive.

'No doubt Doreen was fretted about the prospect of entering into a home, then was asked to undergo the capacity assessment, and put two and two together.'

Within weeks of the evaluation, which resulted in a report stating she 'lacked 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.
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Quizzing Patricia Chiswick in the witness box, he included: 'Doreen enjoyed her home and it had 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 a long time in a care home stank to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's point of view, this must have looked a genuine hazard to her self-reliance.'

But Patricia rejected distressing the pensioner, insisting that the strategy was just ever for a brief break in a care home while she and her spouse went on holiday.

'It was merely a recommendation due to the fact that we do not normally go away for three weeks at a time, and I believe she had been rather weak and her health was weakening in general,' she stated.

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

'It was definitely that it was for 3 weeks. There was no tip she was going to stay there forever.'

The Chiswicks did not go to Ms Stock once again in between the capacity evaluation in 2019 and her death in May 2021.

For Patricia's boy Mr Chiswick, who is the plaintiff in the case, lawyer Simon Lane stated that, at the time she made the new will, she was 'susceptible and was acting out of character.'

The 2019 assessment performed after the suggestion of a care home move had actually led to a professional's finding that she 'lacked capability,' he stated.

But Mr McKean said the evaluation was lacking, 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 in fact occurred.

Other assessments around the exact same time had led to findings that she did have capability, although she was experiencing 'mild' dementia,' he stated.

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

'The court will struggle to discover any evidence of impaired cognition or thinking. On the contrary, Doreen's behaviour, worths and thinking corresponded and plausible at all times.'

He stated there was factor for her to choose to alter her will, the last being made more than thirty years formerly, which already Mr Chiswick - living and dealing with the other side of the Atlantic - would have been 'far from her mind as a recipient.'

He had not seen her once again and even spoken on the phone after moving to the US, while many of the evidence of their relationship came from when he was a kid.

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

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

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