Inheritance disputes often end up in court, especially when the family suspects that the deceased did not act freely in make your will. This is what has happened with the inheritance of an elderly Italian, where justice has finally annulled the distribution in which he had left his assets to his Japanese caregiver, her husband and their son after relatives and neighbors reported pressure, isolation and possible manipulation.
The inheritance, as reported from The Nazioneincluded several apartments and land in the center of Florence, in addition to about 250,000 euros. However, the Civil Court of Florence concluded that man did not have enough capacity to understand fully the consequences of his actions when he signed the will.
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According to the sentence, the old man suffered from an intellectual disability and a situation of psychological fragility that worsened even more after the death of his wife. During the trial, several neighbors claimed to have witnessed episodes of physical violence and stated that the old man himself confessed to them that they had forced him to write the will.
The caregiver controlled the old man’s life and spent his savings
The family members also reported that the caregiver and her husband were gaining more and more control over the man’s life. The woman had been hired in 2009 by the elderly man’s wife to help with daily care, but over time she ended up moving into the house with her family without permission.
According to the ruling, the elderly man’s emotional dependence on his caregivers progressively increased until he was practically isolated from his family environment.
The cousins of the deceased also warned about the rapid disappearance of a large part of their savings. In less than three years, the old man’s money would have gone from 113,000 euros to just 23,000 euros.
Although the criminal procedure ended up being archived, the civil process allowed medical reports and testimonies to come to light that reinforced the idea that the man was not in a position to decide freely.
Justice forces the return of all inherited assets
Finally, the court decided to completely annul the will and order the immediate return of all inherited assets, including the apartments, land and the money received. In addition, the beneficiaries must leave the home in which they resided and pay more than 12,000 euros in legal costs.
For the court, it was proven that the elderly man was “incapable of understanding the consequences of his actions” at the time of writing the will and that the influence of his caregivers further aggravated his vulnerability.