14 December 2010 - Court of Appeal dismisses appeal in RSPCA v Gill

The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court's decision that the will of a testator who suffered from agoraphobia was invalid. The case concerned the estate of Mrs Joyce Gill. Mrs Gill's will, dated 27 April 1993, left the residue of her estate to the RSPCA. The Claimant, the daughter of Mrs Gill, for whom Tracey Angus successfully acted, argued that the will was invalid as Mrs Gill had not known and approved of its contents or alternatively that Mrs Gill had been unduly influenced into executing the will by her husband Mr Gill. The Claimant also advanced a further alternative case that she was entitled to the farm owing to promises made to that effect by her parents on which she relied to her detriment.

The High Court held that the challenge to the will based on knowledge and approval failed as although the Claimant had made out a prima facie case that Mrs Gill had not known and approved of the will when she signed it, the RSPCA had rebutted that case as Mrs Gill had attended meetings with a firm of solicitors to give instructions, review the draft will and sign it, and had also been sent a copy of the draft will for her consideration. However, the High Court concluded that the claims based on undue influence and proprietary estoppel were validly made out.

The RSPCA appealed, and the Claimant cross-appealed against the judge's conclusion in respect of knowledge and approval.

The Court of Appeal has unanimously held that the judge's approach and conclusion on knowledge and approval was incorrect, and that Mrs Gill did not know and approve of the will's contents. The court held that the judge ought to have considered the issue of knowledge and approval as a single-stage inquiry, rather than considering, first, whether a prima facie case had been made out and, second, whether that case had been rebutted. The court further held that even using the two-stage approach, there was no basis in the evidence for saying that the prima facie case established by the Claimant had been rebutted.

The Court of Appeal's judgment can be found here. Tracey Angus also acted for the Claimant in the High Court. The High Court judgment can be found here.