Old age does not alone and of itself vitiate a will or a gift.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) Advanced age alone does not invalidate a will or gift — the question is always whether the testator had mental capacity, not how many years he had lived.

Where this applies

• A 92-year-old woman signs a new will, and her family challenges it solely because of her age — the court holds that old age alone does not invalidate the will if she was mentally sound.
• A man in his late 80s gives a large cash gift to a friend, and relatives argue the gift is void because he was too old to know what he was doing — but age alone is not proof of incapacity.
• An elderly testator changes his will to favor a caretaker, and the disinherited children claim he was too old to decide — the court asks whether he had capacity, not how old he was.