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Pushpa Rani (New Lawyer)     11 December 2008

dementia and will

An old person was suffering from dementia and Alzheimer. He was taking treatment from Out Patient Department (OPD). He wrote a will when was taking medicine diazepam (compose). He is dead now and his will is challenged.

 

The plaintiff has an old prescription paper which mentions date, patient name, age, disease and symptoms, medication and doctors signature. But it doesn’t bear patients signature. Do you think such prescribes could be useful to invalidate the will?



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 3 Replies

Prakash Yedhula (Lawyer)     11 December 2008

 The mere prescription is not enough to invalidate the Will. This can be taken as a piece of corroborative evidence. In case the doctor who treated or who is the author of the prescription is examined, then it will have some weigtage. 

D.V.RamaKrishna (Advocate)     11 December 2008

For a will to be valid it should have been authored by the testator during the state of sound mind and in full conscience and without any duress, coercion, threat, or undue influence and should have appended his signature on such testament knowing fully the facts stated in the testamentary document in the presence of at least two independent witnesses who should have seen the testator append his signature to the document knowing fully what he is doing.


In view of the above, in the present case if it can be proved that the will has been made by the testator during sound state of mind supported by the evidence of atleast one attesting witness, the will can be treated as a valid one.

Pushpa Rani (New Lawyer)     12 December 2008

Prakash, what would be doctor examined for? He can just say yes it is my writing and signature. Because patient is not alive, so recognizing the patient is out of question. It was a government hospital and doctors attend so many patients there, its very unlikely that doctor can remember the patients features or out look.


RamaKrishna, suppose doctor testifies just based on this old prescription that patient was taking treatment for mental illness. But witnesses could be easily bribed; it is well known that how unreliable the witnesses are these days. So both witnesses testify that testator was in good shape, he understood the content of will and they saw him signing the will. So what would be fate of this will?  

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