Which statement about capacity with respect to age or frailty is accurate?

• A. Age, frailty, or drunkenness automatically negates capacity.
• B. A moment of lucidity cannot occur if the testator is frail.
• C. A moment of lucidity can occur despite frailty.
• D. Adjudication of incapacity is the same as capacity to will.

Answer: (C)

Capacity is the ability to understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of a decision at the moment it is made. It isn’t automatically lost just because someone is older, frail, or intoxicated. Even when someone is frail or has cognitive impairment, there can be moments of lucidity where they clearly understand what they’re deciding and can express a voluntary choice. That’s why the statement describing a moment of lucidity occurring despite frailty is the accurate one: capacity is time- and situation-specific, not universally determined by overall health or age. The other ideas aren’t as accurate because age, frailty, or drunkenness don’t automatically negate capacity; a lucid moment can occur; and adjudicating incapacity is a formal legal determination about lack of capacity, not simply the same as the ability to will in a given moment.