In 2002, Melita Jackson disinherited her only child, Heather Ilott. The pair had been estranged since 1978, when Heather – then 17 – ran away from home to live with her boyfriend. (They later married and now have five children.) In her will, Jackson left her entire estate – worth almost half a million pounds – to three animal charities, none of which she had ( alledgedly) shown much interest in. “I can see no reason why my daughter should benefit in any way from my estate,” she wrote, “bearing in mind the distress and worry she has caused me over the years.” No ambiguity there, you might think. And yet, 11 years after Jackson’s death, the Court of Appeal declared her will “unreasonable, capricious and harsh”, and ruled that Ilott should get £164,000 from the estate.

Some people believe that the English legal system has enabled the deceased to play power games from beyond the grave. Most other European countries “insist on a family’s right to inherit”, thereby avoiding  protracted legal disputes. Others feel that this introduces what Leo Benedictus, in The  Guardian, called  “a complicated  form of forced heirship”, exacerbating the growing problem of house price inflation, which means there are more estates worth fighting over. And the increase in divorce and remarriage has made it harder to devise settlements that seem fair to all parties.

I agree with  Max Hastings in the Daily Mail. Each of us should have the right to dispose of our own money as we see fit. If we do so foolishly or spitefully, so what? “Freedom of choice means freedom, sometimes, to commit follies.”  There is a growing trend, in courts and other institutions, to attempt to regulate what “healthy thinking” looks like, a sort of Auntie knows best, arrogant  bossiness.  Jackson’s will was deemed invalid because it was based on an “unreasonable” degree of anger. Maybe she had good reason for her anger?  Maybe her daughter is a piece of work?  We don’t know, and neither does the Court .  It is none of its damn business.  This oppressive cult of “healthy fairness” has no respect for strong feelings, or for final wishes.   Epicurus might have pointed out that the Will is the last and maybe the only act of will a dying person is free to make.