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Two nephews are secured a ₤ 400,000 will contest the fortune of a 'houseproud' widow, who disinherited one side of her household after they recommended she go into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, died childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his partner Catherine, who lived just a couple of minutes from her south London home.

But her Michigan-based great-nephew, 39-year-old Ben Chiswick, has now launched a bid to acquire the lot himself - despite not checking out or perhaps talking to her over the phone since his transfer to the US eight years ago.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had been due to inherit her fortune under a previous will written practically 40 years earlier in 1986 when he was a child, however was considerably disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row emerged after his parents recommended Ms Stock hang around in a care home while they enjoyed a three-week vacation.

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

However, Simon and his spouse are combating the case, declaring Mr Chiswick - who has resided in the US given that 2017 - had no 'significant relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had been 'the closest thing to a boy she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and periodically 'stubborn' Ms Stock had a deep emotional accessory to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having shared it with her hubby Samuel till his death in 2001.

Ben Chiswick, 39, imagined 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 whole 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, kid of her niece Patricia Chiswick and hubby Brent.

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

The court heard Ms Stock had had a good relationship with the Chiswicks, who assisted her with her shopping and visited her regularly.

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

Challenging the will, Mr Chiswick declares that his great-aunt's dementia in her last years suggests there is serious doubt whether she had the required capacity to make the modifications.

And he said the truth there was no discussion 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 delighted relationship and she understood that leaving her estate to me would make a huge difference to my life,' he said in his evidence.

For Simon and Catherine, lawyer James McKean told the court that Ms Stock had actually likewise been close to Simon, who was 'the nearest thing to a boy she had,' adding to his school fees as a kid.

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

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

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

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The court heard there had been 'structure animosity' with the way her power of lawyer was being administered, which 'lastly boiled over in the summer season of 2019 when the Chiswicks made an ill-judged - though perhaps well-intentioned - idea to Doreen that she invest a duration in property care.

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

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

Within weeks of the assessment, which led to a report stating she 'did not have capability,' she had started steps to withdraw the power of attorney and make a new will in Simon and Catherine's favour, he told the judge.

Quizzing Patricia Chiswick in the witness box, he added: 'Doreen enjoyed her home and it had been her and Samuel's home before his death. There was a deep emotional 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 was offensive to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's viewpoint, this should have looked a real threat to her self-reliance.'

But Patricia denied upsetting the pensioner, insisting that the strategy was only ever for a short break in a care home while she and her husband went on holiday.

'It was simply an idea because we do not typically disappear for three weeks at a time, and I believe she had actually been rather unwell and her health was deteriorating in general,' she said.

'I was worried about leaving her and I thought it would be quite nice if she might go somewhere where she might be looked after while we were away.

'It was absolutely stressed out that it was for three weeks. There was no suggestion she was going to remain there indefinitely.'

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

For Patricia's son Mr Chiswick, who is the plaintiff in the event, barrister Simon Lane said that, at the time she made the brand-new will, she was 'susceptible and was behaving out of character.'

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

But Mr McKean stated the assessment wanted, 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 in fact happened.

Other evaluations around the exact same time had actually led to findings that she did have capability, although she was suffering with 'mild' dementia,' he said.

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

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

He said there was reason for her to choose to alter her will, the last being made more than thirty years previously, which by then 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 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 wife had actually had the ability to visit her routinely, 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.