Court Annuls Mother's Will Over Beneficiary's Drafting Involvement

A Family Court in Kiryat Gat has recently annulled a mother's will that left her entire estate, including rights to an agricultural farm, to her daughter. Judge Diana Peso-Vago ruled that the daughter and one of her brothers were substantially involved in drafting the document, rendering the will legally void.

The complex legal battle unfolded among the six children of a deceased couple, centering on the ownership of a family farm in a cooperative moshav. The mother had left two contradictory wills: a 2010 testament leaving her assets to one of her sons, and a February 2013 version naming her daughter as the sole heir while securing lifetime residential rights for two other sons. Following the mother's passing in 2018, all five siblings initially signed a formal agreement validating the later will and transferring the farm rights to their sister, leading to a probate order.

However, the fragile family consensus soon collapsed into a series of bitter legal disputes. The son designated as the primary heir in the first will petitioned to invalidate the later document and revoke his prior consent. He argued that his sister and another brother had personally authored the inheritance instructions and handed them over to the drafting attorney, claiming he was kept entirely in the dark about their active involvement when he signed the waiver.

The daughter defended the will, asserting that her mother was fully competent and understood her actions, and that the siblings had signed the final agreement of their own free will after years of devoted care. Although she initially denied participating in the drafting process, she eventually conceded under cross-examination that she wrote parts of the draft, insisting she merely transcribed her mother's explicit instructions.

Judge Peso-Vago rejected these arguments, concluding that the daughter and her brother were fully engaged in writing the draft, which largely dictated the final testament. The court emphasized that under Israeli inheritance law, a beneficiary's active involvement in drafting a will invalidates the bequest, even without proving undue influence. Consequently, the court revoked the probate order and ordered the daughter to cover legal expenses totaling tens of thousands of shekels for her siblings.