The Tricky Question of Competence

New York Times
By Paula Span
Socialite Brooke Astor was losing ground cognitively, a procession of friends testified last week in a Manhattan courtroom. She no longer recognized people she’d been close to for decades. She wandered. Hosting a dinner party for the former secretary general of the United Nations, she had to ask another guest — Henry Kissinger, as it happened — who “that man” Kofi Annan was. She was unable to draw a clock face accurately, according to the geriatrician who diagnosed her Alzheimer’s disease.

But was the elegant philanthropist competent to make significant changes to her will at age 101? Her son Anthony D. Marshall, 84, and estate lawyer Francis X. Morrissey Jr., 66, stand accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars from her estate, and that legal question lies at the heart of their fraud and conspiracy trial. Questions of competence, however, are not always simple to answer, even after a dementia diagnosis, experts say.

“If the prosecutor can show that when she signed these codicils, she didn’t have capacity, then it’s over,” said Craig Reaves, president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. But, he added, “Capacity is........read the whole story

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