- The legal terms for this Capacity to make a will.
- The classic definition was given in a 1870 case of Banks -v- Goodfellow where the test was said to be that the person making the will must:
- understand the nature of making a will and its effect
- where a house has to be cleaned up and this involves a reasonable amount of unpaid time (not when you engage a cleaner to do it)
- known the extent of the property they own or may own at the time of death
- comprehend and appreciate the claims (ie. moral claims) that they should take into account
- suffer no disorder of the mind that poisons their affections, perverting their sense of right or prevent the exercise of natural faculties
- that no insane delusion shall influence his will in disposing of his property and bring about a disposal of it which, if the mind had been sound, would not have been made.