Court sets aside will signed by father with dementia after family fight over multi-million-rand estate

The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has ruled that wills and a codicil signed by a 94-year-old businessman suffering from dementia are invalid. Judge Norman Manoim found that the deceased, identified as BK, likely lost the mental capacity required to understand the nature and consequences of his decisions while signing the documents between July 2014 and August 2014.

The court ordered that BK's April 2012 will, amended by a codicil signed six days later, should now govern the distribution of his South African estate. BK, born in Minsk in 1923 and later settling in Pietersburg, South Africa, established a business manufacturing hub caps in Johannesburg and later acquired an interest in Form-Scaff, which grew into a successful international company.

His wealth was split into three categories: South African assets, a Family Trust, and an Israeli estate governed by a separate will. The dispute involved family members of both BK's first and second families, with the second family arguing that successive changes to his wills reduced their expected inheritance while favoring his second wife and their daughter.

The court found that BK had suffered from dementia, which progressively worsened over time, based on testimony from five medical experts who examined him retrospectively. The court paid particular attention to the wills signed in July and August 2014, finding that the changes required BK to understand not only who was benefiting but also who was being disadvantaged.

Evidence presented by investment adviser Daniel Roy and David Nathan, BK's financial adviser and attorney, was critical to the court's decision.