Late judge's son claims father's will invalid

THE son of a late Appeal Court judge is claiming his father’s will is not valid.

Khaleel Mustapha Ibrahim, son of retired Justice of Appeal Mustapha Ibrahim, filed a claim seeking to have his father’s will set aside.

The claim alleges that his father’s will left two-thirds of his million-dollar estate to his daughter and one-third to the son. However, the younger Ibrahim said this was not his father’s intention.

Ibrahim, of Sumadh Gardens, Vistabella, has asked the court to pronounce on the validity of the 2017 will. He also wants the grant of probate in Ibrahim’s estate revoked and permission for him to apply for a grant of letters of administration for his father’s estate.

The elder Ibrahim died on June 9, 2017, at the St James University Hospital in Leeds.

Ibrahim is represented by attorney Edwin Roopnarine. His sister, who was named the sole executrix of their father’s estate, is represented by attorneys Jeevan Rampersad and Stephen Boodram.

The lawsuit says on January 31, 2020, probate of the will was granted. Ibrahim claims that it was always his father’s intention that all his property was to be divided equally between his two children, “as he never wanted to display any favouritism.”

Ibrahim claims that before he died, his father told him he would leave him the family home at Sumadh Gardens.

He has alleged that his father was not of sound mind, memory and understanding when he wrote his will, and because of this, it should be declared invalid and the grant of probate revoked.

The lawsuit says if the elder Ibrahim had been of independent mind at the time of drafting the will, shortly before his death, he would have hired a team of attorneys to prepare it. It also says there were no doctors or medical reports to support what his father’s state of mind would have been at the time of preparing the document.

The matter comes up for hearing on March 16 before Justice Joan Charles at a virtual hearing.