Daughters try to stop father with dementia from marrying

THREE daughters of a retired insurance broker tried to stop him remarrying because they feared missing out on their inheritance, a court has heard.

The man, in his 80s, who is suffering from dementia, wants to marry his partner of more than 20 years, but one of his daughters, who has power of attorney, tried to block the wedding, arguing that he did not have the mental capacity to get married.

A will drawn up in 2013 divided most of his assets – including a £1.5million house and £125,000 in savings – among his three daughters, leaving £300,000, his pension, and the right to stay in his property to his partner.

However, if he married the will would be invalid – meaning his new wife would automatically get a “statutory legacy of £250,000, his chattels and half the balance of the estate, about £950,000 to £990,000”, the Court of Protection heard.

His daughter called in an independent mental capacity assessor who said he lacked the capacity to make a proper will, or to marry. The man’s GP and a consultant psychiatrist had both said he had the capacity to marry but not to make a new will.

In a written judgment, which has only just been made public, Judge Nicholas Marston ruled that the man has capacity to marry, and urged his partner and daughters to “find a way of moving forward together after this very bitter dispute” because he “suffers from a degenerative disease and is going to need the help of all those who love him in the very near future”.