The Banks v Goodfellow test for testamentary capacity does not require perfect mental balance; mild cognitive impairment and recent episodes of delirium do not necessarily deprive an elderly testatrix of capacity to make a simple will, particularly where medical staff who observed her at length detected no symptoms of delirium and the will is rational on its face. The court preferred the contemporaneous observations of treating medical staff over a retrospective expert opinion founded on assumptions not supported by the evidence. A will expressing an intention to change an earlier will and disposing of the entire estate in a manner inconsistent with the earlier dispositions impliedly revokes the whole of the earlier will.
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