Illustration/ShutterStock
A recent legal battle in the family court in Rishon Lezion dealt with the estate of Rekha, who in her will bequeathed all her property to a person she met, who later also served as the guardian of her property, and dispossessed her three children.
During the trial, Judge Mira Rom Plai was asked to determine whether it was of her own free will, or whether it was the result of an unfair influence exerted on her by that person, as she was not kosher, in a way that resulted in the denial of her will.
The woman was born in Yemen in 1934 and immigrated to Israel at the age of 14, married at the age of 16 and from her marriage she had three children, and passed away at the age of 86, leaving behind a legacy that caused controversy among her heirs and acquaintances.
The woman owned a residence that was registered in her name, during her lifetime the deceased apparently signed three wills: one undated will, in which the deceased bequeathed all her property to the association; The second will from December 2001, in which she bequeathed all her property to the association, while to each of her three children she bequeathed only one shekel; The third will from July 2006, in which the deceased bequeathed all her property to a person she knew in an unclear manner, and also deprived her three children of her estate.
An elderly couple signs a will/ShutterStock
The same person, a younger man from the deceased, asked the court for an order for the execution of the will from 2006. On the other hand, the two daughters of the deceased, who demanded the inheritance for themselves, acted to oppose the execution of each of the wills. The eldest son of the deceased lives abroad and did not take part in the proceedings. The children claimed that there was "misleading and unfair influence of the applicant on the deceased at the time of the making of the will."
In the background to the verdict, the esteemed judge Rom Plai noted that "it is impossible not to begin without describing the The circumstances of the deceased's life which were difficult and painful. The evidence and testimonies in the case indicated incidents of severe physical and verbal violence that the deceased experienced from her husband and once, possibly even from the eldest daughter."
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"It turned out that the deceased offered her property to almost everyone who helped her along the way"
During the procedure, the relationship between the deceased and the person requesting the inheritance order (hereinafter: the "applicant") became clear. The relationship between them began in 2006 in a way that is not clear, when in that year, a few months after meeting, the aforementioned deceased signed a will according to which that person is the sole heir of her estate.
Admittedly, this is not expert testimony, not least in relation to the deceased's cognitive state, and it is difficult to ignore the many questions and doubts surrounding the acquaintance of the deceased with the applicant. As mentioned before, between the deceased and the applicant (whose difference is about 18 years between them) a relationship was formed in a way that is not completely clear and even the way in which they met is controversial.
The applicant presented a number of versions regarding his acquaintance with the deceased and the nature of his relationship with her, from which it appears that the rabbi of the hidden outweighs the obvious in this matter. This matter has great significance when we come to examine the background to the drafting of the will. Therefore, when it comes to signing wills, her hand was light. Indeed, it turned out that the deceased offered her property to almost everyone who helped her along the way.
Furthermore, Judge Rom Plai noted that "it has been proven that the deceased's unstable mental state, the difficult circumstances of her life, and the loneliness of living, made her have a "thin skull" and hence, easy to be unfairly influenced, in everything related to making wills."
What did the judge decide?
Judge Mira Rom Plai/PR
In conclusion, the judge was convinced that this is a complex, day-to-day family, and can be said to be dysfunctional, either due to the deceased's unstable mental state, or due to the difficult circumstances of her life that led her to this. In any case, this does not throw off the question of the execution of the will in our case.
Under these circumstances, the judge ruled "the application to execute the signed will is rejected and the objection submitted to the execution of the deceased's will is accepted. An inheritance decree according to which the deceased's heirs are her three children, her heirs according to law." In light of the continuation of the proceedings and the result, expenses of NIS 50,000 were imposed on the applicant.
According to Shlomo Buchecho, editor of the Court magazine, "judgments of the Supreme Court usually receive headlines, and from time to time, especially in criminal matters, a judgment from a lower court stands out. However, it is precisely in these judgments that the important decisions that shape the We lived in the country. The decision of Judge Mira Rom Plai, Judge of the Family Court in Rishon LeZion, is a good example of a judge who meets the daily reality, while being sensitive to the human situation on the one hand, and without giving up professionalism on the other hand. A story about the judges in the courts where the stories in the daily lives of all of us are discussed ".
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