Uncle Gabriel described to Nuriel, his old friend and lawyer, the previous night's terrifying moments.
“My niece, Nava, fell in with a really bad crowd, started taking serious drugs and deteriorated rapidly. I tried to help. Suggested I sent her to rehab. But to no avail. Yesterday, after several months I have not seen her, she turns up in my house with a small Glock in her hand! Heaven knows where she got it, but can you imagine the shock and fear I felt”
The lawyer was momentarily struck dumb. "What did she want? Money?"
"I gave her a few thousand shekels I had in my study drawer. But she wanted something more!"
"What.... else?" the lawyer was getting into a state of shock.
"She wanted me to write a will leaving all my assets and property to her.
“'And if I refuse?' I asked her. She said, 'If you don’t, I will be forced to do something I will very likely regret.' I did not ask her to elaborate while she was pressing the small pistol to my neck.”
"So, what did you do?"
"I took a blank page from my study, wrote on it 'Last Will and Testament' and wrote that after my death everything I own would devolve to her."
"Did you sign it?"
"Yes."
"Did you date it?"
"Yes."
The lawyer sighed – “You wrote the whole thing in your own hand signed it and dated it. Then on the face of it, it’s a valid hill.
“To make sure that it is cancelled sit down now and write another hill. This latter hill can revoke the one you signed yesterday."
But to the lawyer’s surprise Gabriel laughed at this.
"Why would I do that?" he said to his astonished lawyer. "Look, I have every intention of leaving everything to her anyhow. As you know, I have not married and have no children and have no other family in the world other than her. We are very close except when she's not herself, crazy with the drugs."
“Are you mad? You wrote a will under duress with a gun at your head and you want to leave this criminal person as a beneficiary?”
"Precisely. It was under duress, I agree, but it is exactly what I want to happen after I die."
Inheriting after forcing a will to be drawn up at gunpoint
The conversation ended there but not before the lawyer sat and wrote a memorandum in the file detailing the exact content of the discussion with Uncle Gabriel.
Years passed. Uncle Gabriel persuaded his much-loved niece to leave the bad crowd she had fallen into and sent her into rehab at the Betty Ford rehabilitation center in California. She came out after going through a traumatic course of withdrawal. The withdrawal suddenly and completely cut her from the substances she was addicted to, created in her the determination never to take another drug of any type again. In fact, never smoked or even took a pain killer for the rest of her life.
Life resumed its normal course. Nava's relationship with Uncle Gabriel remained very close. The events of that terrifying night were long forgotten and forgiven between them. Nava got married, and as the sole relative to Uncle Gabriel, he was always part of family events. The family celebrating the birth of her fifth child with her husband when Gabriel did not feel well went upstairs and died of a heart attack.
The uncle may have passed on but the lawyer, Nuriel, was still alive and kicking.
When the will was put up to Nuriel asked to be formally recognized by the Family Law Court in Tel Aviv (a process known as Probate), declaring himself to be an Amicus Curiae (a "friend of the court") and argued that this will was extracted under duress and thus, totally void. This refers to a person or group who is not a party to an action, but has an interest in the matter). The niece, he argued, should inherit nothing and as there were no other family the funds which belonged to the wealthy Gabriel should by default go to the State.
Nava admitted the events of that fateful evening - she wasn't going to lie about it – “I was irrational and under the influence of heavy drugs,” she shamefacedly told the court.
The court had to make a decision whether a will that was undeniably written under a threat of death could ever be considered valid.
It is completely counterintuitive and astonishing, but the court decided – leaning on an obscure clause in the Inheritance Act 1965 (section 31) that despite forcing the old man to write a will out of fear for his life, Nava would inherit the entire estate.
The clause in the law raised a presumption: that Gabriel had plenty of opportunities to make another will. But he did not. Thus, as more than a year had elapsed from the event of the duress (the pressing of a loaded gun to his head) then it would be considered as if he had forgiven the niece and thus Nava inherited his entire state.
But is this a reasonable state of affairs? Is it right that a person just by doing nothing will be deemed to have forgiven a grievous attack on his rights, being forced to write a will with a gun aimed at his head?
And indeed, the recently suggested reform of the Inheritance Law now recommends that the section 31 clause be repealed forthwith. If a testator who wrote a will under duress wishes to reconcile with the perpetrator, he must express his forgiveness not by default but by the proactive action of writing a new will.
But note: the reform is years from becoming law and meanwhile, the presumption of forgiveness which allowed Nava to inherit stands as the law of the land.
Dr. Haim Katz and Adv. Sam Katz are senior partners in a law firm based in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Their new book in English, The Complete Guide to Wills and Inheritance in Israel, is published by Israel Law Publications. Specializing in inheritance disputes and Family Law they both serve on the Israel Bar Association National Committee for Inheritance and Family Law which advises the government on law reform. office@drkatzlaw.com