“(the claimant) has been troubled by mental illness of which a major symptom is depression since his final years at school. A firm diagnosis, of Asperger’s syndrome has only very recently been made.”
“(the claimant) was at the times of signing the tenancy agreement and of the application for housing benefit incapable of managing his own affairs. He was incapax.”
“23. It will be necessary in any particular case such as the present for the adjudicating authorities first to consider the extent of a claimant’s mental disability and to determine whether that person is so mentally incapacitated that he is “incapax” as understood in Scots law. We did not suggest, of course, the full investigation required for the appointment of a curator bonis but an impression must be formed upon a broad view of the claimant’s condition as to whether he can properly give meaningful and useful directions in regard to such funds and other arrangements as might be called “his affairs”
“The issue is primarily one of fact. There must have been a mental (or physical) defect which rendered the contracting party incapable of understanding what was being done so that there was no consent to that contract. (Our italics). A person’s ability to understand or consent to other types of acts, or other contracts, is not the test, although evidence of surrounding circumstances is always relevant. The question of capacity will be decided on medical evidence and evidence of behaviour.”