Re The Estate of Margaret Bradley [Deceased]

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judge: Ms. Justice Eileen Roberts
• Judgment Date: 27 June 2025
• Neutral Citation: [2025] IEHC 365
• Docket Number: 2023 No. 7420

In the Matter of the Estate of Margaret Bradley, Deceased, Late of 92 Ballinteer Drive, Dundrum Dublin 16.

[2025] IEHC 365

2023 No. 7420

THE HIGH COURT PROBATE

Wills – Admission to probate – Testamentary capacity – Applicant seeking an order pronouncing for the force and validity of a will, its admission to probate in common form of law and an order granting her liberty to extract a grant of probate of the will – Whether the deceased had testamentary capacity at the time she made the will

Facts: Ms P Bradley (the Deceased), died on 29 November 2017. She made her last will and testament on 22 June 2011 (the 2011 Will). The then surviving executor of the Deceased’s estate applied to the High Court for an order admitting the 2011 Will to proof in common form of law. By the 2011 Will, the Deceased appointed her sisters Ms M Lynch and Ms S Bradley to be her executrices. If both of her said sisters predeceased her, the Deceased appointed her niece Ms C Lynch to be her executrix. Ms C Lynch was also named as the residuary devisee and legatee in the 2011 Will. Both her sisters survived the Deceased but were themselves deceased. Ms S Bradley died on 8 December 2021. Since this application issued by Ms M Lynch on 27 July 2023, Ms M Lynch herself died on 19 October 2024. In her capacity as residuary legatee and devisee of the 2011 Will, Ms C Lynch was the person statutorily entitled to apply for probate of the 2011 Will. She sought an order pronouncing for the force and validity of the 2011 Will, its admission to probate in common form of law and an order granting her liberty to extract a grant of probate of the 2011 Will. An order was sought in the alternative pronouncing for the force and validity of the Deceased’s previous will dated 25 March 2010 (the 2010 Will). The necessity for that application arose in circumstances where the Deceased’s death certificate recorded a finding of “dementia”. This raised a query regarding the testamentary capacity of the Deceased at the time she made the 2011 Will.

Held by Roberts J that it is important that the rights of persons with cognitive impairment be respected and that they are permitted to conduct their own affairs insofar as that is possible. Roberts J held that having dementia, particularly at a level described as mild cognitive impairment, is not of itself inconsistent with testamentary capacity. Roberts J held that each case will turn on its own specific facts and the evidence available to the court as to the level of understanding which the testator had at the relevant time. In the circumstances as Roberts J found them in this case of a duly executed will that was rational on its face and in light of all the available evidence outlined in her judgment, the court found that despite her underlying cognitive impairment, the Deceased had testamentary capacity in June 2011 and that she made the 2011 Will in the knowledge that it would deal with her estate on death as she wished it to.

Roberts J therefore made an order in terms of paragraph 1 of the notice of motion dated 27 July 2023 pronouncing for the force and validity of the 2011 Will and admitting same to probate in common form of law. Roberts J also made an order granting liberty to Ms C Lynch, as residuary legatee, to extract a grant of probate of the 2011 Will.

Application granted.

JUDGMENT of Ms. Justice Eileen Roberts delivered on 27 June 2025

Introduction

1 . Margaret (otherwise Peggy) Bradley died on 29 November 2017. I will refer to Margaret throughout this judgment as the “ Deceased”. She made her last will and testament on 22 June 2011 (the “ 2011 Will”).

2 . This judgment deals with the application made by the then surviving executor of the Deceased's estate for an order admitting the 2011 Will to proof in common form of law.

3 . By the 2011 Will, the Deceased appointed her sisters Maureen Lynch and Sheila Bradley to be her Executrices. If both of her said sisters predeceased her, the Deceased appointed her niece Carmel Lynch to be her Executrix. Carmel Lynch was also named as the residuary devisee and legatee in the 2011 Will.

4 . Both her sisters survived the Deceased but are now themselves deceased. Sheila Bradley died on 8 December 2021. Since this application issued by Maureen Lynch on 27 July 2023 Maureen Lynch herself died on 19 October 2024.

5 . In her capacity as residuary legatee and devisee of the 2011 Will, Carmel Lynch is now the person statutorily entitled to apply for probate of the 2011 Will. She seeks an order pronouncing for the force and validity of the 2011 Will, its admission to probate in common form of law and an order granting her liberty to extract a grant of probate of the 2011 Will.

6 . An order is sought in the alternative pronouncing for the force and validity of the Deceased's previous will dated 25 March 2010 (the “ 2010 Will”).

7 . The necessity for this application arises in circumstances where the Deceased's death certificate records a finding of “ dementia”. This raises a query regarding the testamentary capacity of the Deceased at the time she made the 2011 Will.

8 . Dr. Terence Maguire, the General Practitioner who treated the Deceased at that time, is also now deceased and his records are no longer available. It has not proved possible for another medical practitioner to provide contemporaneous medical evidence of the Deceased's testamentary capacity as at 22 June 2011. Accordingly, the testamentary capacity of the Deceased must be determined in this application based on an assessment by this court of the other available evidence.

9 . Concerns have been expressed by certain relatives of the Deceased regarding the Deceased's testamentary capacity. Those relatives engaged counsel but there is no challenge to the 2011 Will other than their concerns regarding the Deceased's testamentary capacity.

The parties and the relevant background

10 . The Deceased was 79 years old when she died on 29 November 2017. The 2011 Will is dated 22 June 2011 and so was made more than six years before the Deceased died. This time gap must be borne in mind in assessing the relevant evidence.

11 . The Deceased died a single person, never having married, and with no issue. She was survived by her two sisters (Maureen Lynch and Sheila Bradley) and by her brother Cornelius Bradley. Carmel Lynch is a daughter of Maureen Lynch. Cornelius Bradley is married with four children and he is now the only living sibling of the Deceased.

12 . The Deceased owned a property at Ballinteer Drive, Dundrum, Dublin 16 and it appears that she lived at that property until sometime in 2010/2011 when her medical records suggest she had moved to live with her sister Margaret Lynch in Blanchardstown. As at September 2015 the Deceased was residing in the Silver Birch residential unit attached to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, having moved there at a date unknown to the court.

13 . For reasons that are not evident from the papers or submissions to the court, it appears that the Deceased moved from the Silver Birch Residential Unit in Connolly Hospital in September 2015 to a private nursing home in Cork (Araglen Nursing Home) near her original homeplace in Ruhill. She remained there for a short period but left at Christmas 2015 to live with her sister Sheila in the original homeplace and did not return to the nursing home.

14 . The Deceased then lived with her sister Sheila until the Deceased was admitted to Mercy Hospital Cork at a date unknown. She remained there it appears for several months until she was discharged to a HSE nursing home, Kanturk Hospital (Cork Community Hospital) in August 2017 where she remained until her death following emergency admission to Cork University Hospital on 27 November 2017.

15 . The evidence is that the Deceased made the 2010 Will with the same firm of solicitors as the 2011 Will, although with a different solicitor in that practice. There is little difference between the 2010 Will and the 2011 Will. Those differences are confirmed by Mr Brendan Dillon solicitor in the following terms in his supplemental affidavit dated 20 February 2025 — “ I say that the only differences between the 2011 Will and the 2010 Will is that a legacy of €2000.00 was given to the deceased's brother Daniel Joseph Bradley and a memento in the 2010 Will [which] is omitted from the 2011 Will and in the 2011 Will Maureen Lynch was to receive a one fifth share in the property in Ruhill which was not included in the 2010 Will.” Another difference is that Daniel was removed as a beneficiary in the 2011 Will from a share in the Deceased's residuary estate if Carmel predeceased the Deceased.

16 . An attendance note taken by the solicitor who prepared the 2010 Will indicates that the Deceased was driven to the solicitor's office by her sister Sheila but that the Deceased was met alone by the solicitor. The note records that the Deceased “ wanted to change her will as she now wanted her niece to get the house and most things as her niece had been living with her for over a year and indeed, over the years had lived with her on a 4–5 day basis as she went to school from there from the time she was in sixth class”. It notes that the Deceased was aware at that time that she had an enlarged heart and that her health was not good.

17 . This attendance note mentions the Deceased's “ three siblings” to whom the Deceased said she wished to each bequeath €2000 plus a memento of their choosing. In fact, the Deceased then had four living siblings and not three. Her brother Daniel was alive at that time (he died on 13 December 2010). The 2010 Will provides these bequests to the Deceased's two sisters Maureen and Sheila and to her brother Daniel but makes no reference to her brother Cornelius. The attendance note records the Deceased's instructions as to the amount of cash she held in her AIB bank account.

18 . The attendance note...