Bizarre legal row after man writes will on back of frozen fish and mince pie boxes
A man inadvertently sparked a bizarre legal case after he scrawled his will on the back of some cardboard food packaging.
Malcolm Chenery, who died in 2021, wrote that he wanted his three-bedroom house and about £180,00 worth of possessions, including cash, jewellery and pottery, to be left to The British Diabetic Association.
The first page of the will was handwritten on a Young’s frozen fish fillets box, while the second page was scrawled on a Mr Kipling mince pies box.
However, the diabetes charity came up against a legal roadblock when lawyers pointed out that the two pages were written on different boxes.
While the second page had been legally witnessed and signed by Chenery’s neighbours, the first page – which stipulated that the house and contents should go to the charity – could not automatically be read as part of the same document because it did not come from the same Mr Kipling box, the High Court heard.
Lawyers said that if the “document” was not legally recognised, Chenery’s home and belongings would instead be divided between his sisters and nieces, with whom he had “long-standing bad blood” and did not want to leave anything to, according to his will.
Sam Chandler, representing The British Diabetic Association, told the High Court that the charity’s claim was uncontested and that it had the “support of family members” in its bid to receive the cash.
He added: “Various family members have explained that diabetes runs in the family, hence why he named the claimant charity as his principal beneficiary...
“We say the court should have no hesitation in proclaiming in favour of this document, comprised of two pieces for cardboard.”
Judge Master Katherine McQuail approved the charity’s bid and said she agreed that “the document is clearly intended from its context to be a will.”
She told the court: “His family were not close and he would not have wanted his possessions to go to them. His family had a history of diabetes, which explains why he made the testamentary instructions that he did.”
The judge added: “I feel satisfied that the two documents should be admitted in solemn form to probate as the last will of the deceased.”