Supreme Court Upholds Elderly Man’s Estate Gift to Childhood Friend

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a request for leave to appeal and a separate request for reconsideration, effectively ending a bitter inheritance dispute over an elderly man’s estate, worth tens of millions of shekels. The ruling leaves his childhood friend from Latvia as the sole beneficiary of his worldwide assets, while the family members who challenged the will get nothing.

The man and his wife had been married for decades and split their lives between Israel and Germany. Over the years they accumulated extensive real estate holdings and, according to the court, were financially comfortable and lived in relative prosperity. They had no children. At first, each spouse named the other as heir in separate wills, with the understanding that the surviving spouse could write a new will after the other’s death.

After his wife died, the man reconnected with a childhood friend in Latvia. A few months later, he wrote a handwritten will in Russian leaving all of his property, anywhere in the world, to her. He died about a month later. The friend later sought probate in Israel, and an heir-search expert located the children of the man’s aunt, who had had no relationship with him.

Those cousins objected, arguing the will was forged, invalid because it lacked his signature, and that he lacked cognitive capacity. They also claimed the friend exerted undue influence. Courts at every level rejected those claims. A handwriting expert concluded that he wrote the will, and another expert found no sign of cognitive decline and said it reflected his free will. The lower court also found that after his wife’s death he was alone, that the friend helped care for him and even arranged his funeral, while the objector had been out of touch with him for more than 40 years. The Supreme Court said the case raised no principle issue, making the inheritance judgment final.