A South African woman has won a legal battle to have her late partner’s handwritten will recognised by the Master of the High Court, after his children challenged the document, claiming it was not authentic and that he lacked the mental capacity to make it while hospitalised.
The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ruled in favour of the woman, finding that the deceased had intended the handwritten document, signed on December 25, 2020, to serve as his will, despite it not complying with the formal legal requirements for executing a will.
Acting Judge KD Iles ordered the Master of the High Court to accept the document as the will of the deceased for purposes of administering his estate.
Hospital-bed will
The dispute centred on a document the deceased prepared while hospitalised during the Covid-19 pandemic in December 2020.
According to court documents, the woman and the deceased had been in a relationship since 2015 and began living together in 2016. Their families entered into lobola negotiations, which were finalised in March 2017.
However, because the deceased was still married to his first wife at the time, their customary marriage was invalid. The couple lived together until his death and had three minor children.
The deceased also had three children from his previous marriage and another minor child.
The woman told the court that on Christmas Day 2020, the deceased handed her a notebook containing a handwritten document he had drafted and instructed her to have it formalised through his legal insurer, LIPCO.
She said the deceased had signed the document on that day.
When she returned to the hospital on January 3, 2021, the deceased allegedly asked medical staff to witness the document, but they declined.
The following days saw further attempts to get the will witnessed, including by a hospital employee and a former colleague of the deceased.
The former colleague signed the document on January 8, 2021, although he did not witness the deceased signing it.
The deceased underwent a medical procedure later that day and never regained consciousness. He died on January 13, 2021.
His children challenged authenticity of will
The deceased’s three children from his first marriage opposed the application, disputing whether their father had written the document and whether he had been mentally capable of making a will while in hospital.
They also accused the woman of fraud, arguing that she stood to benefit from the estate.
The court heard competing handwriting expert evidence. The woman’s expert concluded that the handwriting on the document matched that of the deceased, while the respondents’ expert criticised the methodology used to reach that conclusion. – IOL News
