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A family court in northern Israel recently ruled to void a will left by a woman who disinherited her children and left her entire estate to her niece.
In November 2014, the woman, a mother of four, drafted a witnessed will instructing that all her assets go to her niece in the U.S., except for four shekels (about $1), which were to be split among her children. However, four years later, she returned to her lawyer and requested to revoke the will.
In November 2018, she signed a document titled "Will," saying her wish to cancel the previous one. The lawyer’s secretary, who witnessed the signing, wrote on the document that she "confirms the revocation of the will."
Following the woman’s death in 2020, a legal battle erupted between her children and the niece. The niece argued that despite the distance, she regularly visited and cared for her aunt while her children abandoned her during her illness — justifying the original will.
She claimed the revocation document didn’t meet legal requirements and since her aunt never drafted a new will or physically destroyed the original, she hadn’t truly intended to cancel it.
The children, however, insisted their mother’s revocation met legal standards, rendering the original will void. They petitioned for an inheritance order naming them as heirs.
Judge Liat Dahan Hayun stressed that there was no dispute over the woman’s mental competence when signing the revocation and that her signature was valid. The key question was whether the revocation document met legal requirements. She noted that inheritance law prioritizes honoring the testator’s true intentions.
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The judge ruled that the revocation met legal criteria, as it was written and signed before two witnesses. She also found, based on the lawyer’s testimony, that the revocation reflected the woman’s genuine will.
"I have no doubt that the testator freely intended to cancel her will, without any external influence and was fully competent to do so," she wrote, adding that the woman actively arranged the lawyer’s appointment, arrived as scheduled and reaffirmed her wish to revoke the will.
The court concluded that, contrary to the niece’s claim, the woman had decisively and voluntarily chosen to cancel her will with a full understanding of its implications. The judge ordered the will voided and granted the children’s inheritance request. The niece was ordered to pay them 20,000 shekels (about $5,500) in legal fees.