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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 2570 September Term, 2005

JAMES J. DOUGHERTY IV v. JANET C. RUBENSTEIN, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF JAMES J. DOUGHERTY III

Eyler, Deborah S., Adkins, Sharer, JJ. Opinion by Eyler, Deborah S., J.

Filed: January 4, 2006

The "insane delusion rule" of testamentary capacity came into being almost 200 years ago, as the invention of British jurists in Dew v. Clark, 162 Eng. Rep. 410 (Prerog. 1826). The rule was

devised to cover a gap in the existing law, which held that "idiots and persons of non-sane memory" could not make wills, see 34 & 35 Hen. 7, ch. 5 (1534), but accepted as valid the will of a testator "who knew the natural objects of his or her bounty, the nature and extent of his or her property, and could make a `rational' plan for disposition, but who nonetheless was as crazy as a March hare[.]" Eunice L. Ross & Thomas J. Reed, Will Contests

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Maryland Law