Spy camera undue influence victory

Yet another headline this week concerning a litigated inheritance dispute.

Undue Influence is one of the most difficult challenges to bring when disputing a Will. By its very nature it occurs behind closed doors and therefore it is notoriously difficult to prove.  In a rare turn of events, the court were referred to a transcript of video footage taken from secret cameras installed by the deceased’s daughter, recording her cousin’s interactions with the deceased, who suffered from dementia. The Court held that the cousin had “embarked on a campaign of influence, which amounted to undue influence”.

In order to succeed, the claimant must be able to show that the deceased was coerced into making a Will, which in effect means that the person making the will was influenced to the extent that their free will was completely overridden. This is incredibly hard to prove, and commonly it is easier to challenge on the basis of want of knowledge and approval, where there are concerns around the circumstances of making a Will.

Daughter of inventor who designed parts of Hawker Harrier jump jet wins £2.5m inheritance battle with builder cousin after using spy cameras to catch him persuading her dementia-hit mother to leave him slice of family fortune Candice Harrison's father Arthur designed parts of the Hawker Harrier jump jet She has won legal battle with cousin after inheriting £400,000 from her mother
The daughter of an aeronautical inventor who used secret spy cameras to catch her cousin persuading her mother to leave him a large share of her fortune has won a £2.5million inheritance battle. Candice Harrison, whose father Arthur designed parts of the Hawker Harrier jump jet, sued her builder cousin Jonathan Greenwood after he inherited £400,000 tax free from her dementia-ridden mother's will of 2017. The 63-year-old claimed her cousin had turned her mother Julie Harrison 'against her'