Question

Sheila, a widow, makes out a will leaving one-half of her property equally to two of her adult children, Mark and Paula. The other one-half of her peoperty she is leaving to her neighbor Ned. Her third adult child, Elmo was left nothing. Sometime later a court declares Sheila mentally incompetent. Sheila dies 6 months after that. Mark, paula and Elmo now seek to invalidate the will.

1. What legal arguments may be used to invalidate the will?
A. Sheila was unable to understand what she was signing when she signed the will.
B. Sheila is not permitted to disinherit any of her children.
C. Either of these arguments are legally valid.
D. neither of these arguments are legally valid.
2. If the will is deemed to be invalid how would Sheila's estate be distributed?
a. one third each to Elmo, Mark and Paula.
b. 50% to Elmo. 25% each to Mark and Paula.
c. 25% to Ned, Mark Paula and Elmo.
d. 100% to the government.

Answer 1

1. A.

2. a.

Step-by-step explanation:

1. In this scenario, the only legal argument that they can make would be that Sheila was unable to understand what she was signing when she signed the will. Even though the bar for mental incompetence when dealing with a Will is extremely low, they can still dispute the will under this claim. Mainly due to the fact that she was declared Mentally Incompetent by a court judge, thus giving the claim much more validity and possibility of being accepted by the court.

2. If the court accepts this claim then the entirety of Sheila's estate will be distributed evenly among her next of kin, which in this case would be her children. Therefore, the estate will be divided evenly, one third each to Elmo, Mark and Paula, who are all of Sheila's adult children.