In the wake of the 9-11 destruction of the World Trade Center and its mass casualties, U.S. government aid to survivors spawned litigation of competing claimants. In one such case, The Forensic Panel was court-appointed to examine the history of a decedent in order to inform a matter for which little precedent had been established – competency to wed. The case involved a deceased security guard, whose biological family challenged the legitimacy of his marriage, characterizing him as an emotional simpleton and claiming that his wife had only married him in an immigration-motivated scheme.
Our specialist, common to matters of testamentary capacity and death investigation, pursued objective sources of information that endured beyond the decedent’s passing to develop a clear appreciation for his emotional capabilities, the depth of the intimacy, and how these findings related to his decisional capacity. The findings illuminated how emotions and attachment express in the less communicative and those of more limited intelligence. The case settled without need for further litigation.
