Daughter cut off with a pound fails to prove will was forged

The England & Wales High Court has rejected a woman's claim that her sister forged her mother's will, leaving her with a legacy of only one pound.

Mrs Ethel Lucille Hayles died in 2006, having been looked after by her elder daughter Jacqueline for the last 17 years of her life. After her death, a will executed in 2005 was found and presented for probate. It left most of the GBP300,000 estate to Jacqueline.
The will also disinherited Mrs Hayles' estranged younger daughter Angela Salmon, whom the will said had borrowed money from her mother: "To my young daughter Angela Salmon she has caused the death of me, I leave her one pound." (Mrs Hayles was a native Jamaican). Angela Salmon challenged the will's validity, claiming Jacqueline had forged it without her mother's knowledge.

But the EWHC judge considered Jacqueline was too honest to have forged the signature on her mother's will, and so he decided the will was valid. The judge added it was "doubly unfortunate" that Angela's challenge to the will and the associated allegation of forgery had been funded by legal aid.

Reported in the STEP Journal