Testamentary capacity and Lord Templeman’s will
Introduction
On 19 March 2020, Mr Justice Fancourt handed down judgment in the matter of Re Baron Templeman of White Lackington (Deceased) [2020] EWHC 632 (Ch). The case concerned the validity of the last will of Lord Templeman, who sat in the House of Lords from 1982 to 1994. No post about Lord Templeman would be complete without reference to his forthright and uncompromising manner. One of the many accounts of his dealings with Counsel included a case where he had been characteristically robust with Leading Counsel. Having concluded with the Leader he asked whether Junior Counsel wished to make any submissions. ‘Not without a helmet my Lord’ came the reply.
Lord Templeman died in 2014 and the sole issue in the case was whether he had testamentary capacity when he executed his last will in 2008, 6 years before. The 2008 will was neither witnessed nor approved by a medical practitioner.
The claimants (the stepdaughters of Lord Templeman’s late wife) sought to propound the 2008 will, whereas the first and second defendants (the younger son and daughter-in-law of Lord Templeman) contended that it was invalid.
The ‘golden rule’ places a requirement on a solicitor or will writer to assess whether the testator has testamentary capacity, and if necessary, to obtain medical evidence to support this. Incredibly (and in an ironic twist), the development of the golden rule was advanced by Lord Templeman himself in Kenward v Adams ChD 29 November 1975, and Re Simpson [1977] 121 SJ 224 where he determined that ‘… the making of a will by an aged or seriously ill testator ought to be witnessed or approved by a medical practitioner who has satisfied himself of the capacity and understanding of the testator, and records and preserves his examination or findings’.
As stated by Mr Justice Fancourt at [116] it is ‘commonplace that people who are able dispassionately to give good advice to others do not always follow such advice themselves, or believe themselves to be in need of it’.