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 go into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her entire estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his spouse Catherine, who lived just a few minutes from her south London home.
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But her Michigan-based great-nephew, 39-year-old Ben Chiswick, has now introduced a bid to acquire the lot himself - despite not checking out or even consulting with her over the phone since his relocate to the US eight years earlier.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had actually been because of inherit her fortune under a previous will written nearly 40 years earlier in 1986 when he was a baby, but was significantly disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row erupted after his parents suggested Ms Stock hang out in a care home while they enjoyed a three-week vacation.

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

However, Simon and his partner are battling the case, declaring Mr Chiswick - who has lived in the US considering that 2017 - had no 'significant relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had been 'the nearest thing to a boy she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and sometimes 'stubborn' Ms Stock had a deep psychological attachment to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having shared it with her husband Samuel until his death in 2001.

Ben Chiswick, 39, pictured 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 whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (visualized), and his better half Catherine

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

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

The court heard Ms Stock had actually had a great 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, but before she passed away withdrawed the document and altered her will, leaving whatever to a nephew on her hubby's side.

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

And he said the truth there was no discussion 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 comprehended that leaving her estate to me would make an enormous distinction to my life,' he stated in his proof.

For Simon and Catherine, barrister James McKean told the court that Ms Stock had also been close to Simon, who was 'the nearest thing to a boy she had,' contributing to his school charges as a kid.

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

Patricia had then scheduled a 'capacity evaluation' for her auntie, which the lawyer said caused Ms Stock fearing her self-reliance was being threatened and eventually changing her will.

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

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The court heard there had been 'structure bitterness' with the method 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 - suggestion to Doreen that she invest a period in residential care.

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

'No doubt Doreen was fretted about the possibility of entering into a home, then was asked to undergo the capacity evaluation, and put 2 and 2 together.'

Within weeks of the evaluation, which resulted in a report stating she 'lacked capacity,' she had actually started actions to revoke 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 included: 'Doreen liked 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 spend some time in a care home stank to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's point of view, this must have looked a real threat to her independence.'

But Patricia denied disturbing the pensioner, insisting that the plan was just ever for a time-out in a care home while she and her husband went on holiday.

'It was merely a suggestion since we do not generally disappear for 3 weeks at a time, and I think she had actually been quite unwell and her health was deteriorating in basic,' she said.

'I was worried about leaving her and I believed it would be rather nice if she could go someplace where she might be taken care of while we were away.

'It was definitely stressed out that it was for 3 weeks. There was no suggestion she was going to stay there indefinitely.'

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

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

The 2019 assessment performed after the idea of a care home move had resulted in an expert's finding that she 'lacked capacity,' he stated.

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

Other evaluations around the very same time had actually resulted in findings that she did have capability, although she was suffering with 'moderate' dementia,' he stated.

'Doreen may have had some memory problems, however capability and memory are different monsters,' he stated.

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

He said there was factor for her to choose to change her will, the last being made more than 30 years previously, and that by then Mr Chiswick - living and dealing with the other side of the Atlantic - would have been 'far from her mind as a beneficiary.'

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

On the other hand, Mr Stock and his other half had 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 beneficiaries,' he included.

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