Estate File (Nazareth) 55446-04-22 The late L.W. v. the Custodian General, Haifa and Northern District, Government Ministries

Judgment

The procedure:

1. Before me is an application for an oral probate order, a will of the deceased (hereinafter: the "Will") of the deceased L.  The late F.  who passed away on December 23, 2021 (hereinafter: "the deceased").  The application was submitted by Ms. K.  On March 9, 2022, K., who was a neighbor of the deceased, claimed that the deceased had orally bequeathed his entire estate to her.  During the hearings, Ms. K.  The late K.  passed away (hereinafter: "the deceased"), and her rights were inherited by her daughter, the heiress, Mrs. A.    that continued to manage this application (hereinafter: the "Applicant").

A brief factual background:

2. The Applicant claims that the deceased made an oral will, which is the will of a deceased person, before his death, in front of two witnesses. The memorandum of understanding of the alleged will was drawn up on February 17, 2022 and is signed by the deceased as well as the two witnesses, Mr. M.    (hereinafter: "Mr. M.K.") and Mr. N.  K.  (hereinafter: "Mr. N.K.").  The memorandum was not deposited with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs and was attached to the application for probate of the will submitted on behalf of the deceased.  It should be noted that the Applicant claimed that the will was deposited with the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs in Nazareth on March 9, 2022.
3. According to the memorandum, paragraph 4, the deceased states that the deceased, while he was hospitalized in a Saudi hospital and his medical condition was very serious, and when he felt that he was passing away, he told her in a visit she made with the witness Mr. M.K., that after his death his estate would be transferred to her, due to the relationship that she had with the deceased all these years and the great help she had given him. The deceased notes that her visit together with Mr. M.K.  It was on 6/12/21.
4. In paragraph 5 of the memorandum of understanding, the witness Mr. N.K. Because he had known the deceased for many years and they were friends, and that on December 11, 2021, when he visited him in a nursing home, the deceased complained that his health condition was very serious and he felt that it was the end of his life, and asked that after his death his estate be transferred to the deceased, who was his neighbor and with whom he had been friends for many years.  The witness, Mr. N.K.  He further notes that he also knew the deceased.
5. In the case, Adv. Mr. S. was appointed on September 29, 2022.    as a temporary estate administrator (hereinafter: "the executor of the estate"), who acted to locate potential heirs, as well as to take care of the apartment that the deceased had on *** street in ***.  The executor of the estate, and after receiving orders from the court, located Mr. Y.  Z.  who is the cousin of the deceased, respondent No. 2 (hereinafter: "the respondent").
6. The respondent, who resides abroad, will be represented in this proceeding by his son Mr. A. By means of a power of attorney presented to the file.  The respondent was added to the proceeding in accordance with the court's decision of November 14, 2023.  The expert submitted an opinion, and then requests for clarifications and supplementary opinions were submitted, in particular with regard to medical material from the geriatric hospital.
7. The respondent , in turn, opposes the application and argues that the alleged will does not meet the requirements of the law and case law. The respondent raised many arguments, both with regard to the medical condition of the deceased, who he claimed was in a bad mental state and could not make a will and understand its nature.  In addition, the respondent raised many arguments regarding the lack of fulfillment of the requirements set forth in the law and the case law for the purpose of proving a will of a deceased person.  The respondent argued that a petition for such an application is very unusual as determined in case law.
8. In the case, and after orders were issued to receive all the medical material related to the deceased, on January 14, 2025, the court appointed the medical expert, Dr.   f., in the field of psychogeriatrics (hereinafter: "the expert"), to examine the mental and cognitive state of the deceased at the relevant dates for the drafting of the alleged will.

The Ottoman Settlement [Old Version] 1916

9. 12-34-56-78 Chekhov v. State of Israel, P.D.  51 (2)The expert submitted a comprehensive, detailed and objective opinion, based on hundreds of pages of medical records from various institutions, and referred to the period relevant to the drafting of the alleged will.  The expert unequivocally determined that the deceased suffered from advanced dementia, significant cognitive decline, disorientation in time and place, and loss of judgment.
10. The expert's conclusion was that the deceased was incompetent to understand the significance of his actions or to express an independent will, and thus the expert determined in his opinion conclusions that:

"After examining Mr. W.  My conclusion is that at the time of drafting the wills on December 6, 11 and 13, 2021, the deceased was not in a state of mental capacity to understand the nature of a will or the nature of any other legal document."