Estate Planning

Probate Granted Despite Irregularities in the Will

By Hull and Hull LLP

In Laidlaw Estate, Re, a recent decision of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, the court considered an application for a grant of probate in respect of a Will containing handwritten changes.

The key facts are that the Deceased executed a typewritten Will made with the assistance of a lawyer. Changes were later made to the Will gifting a Bond to certain beneficiaries, consisting of handwritten words and numbers.  The Testator signed the handwritten changes.  There were no witnesses to the handwritten changes made to the Will. 

Testimony was given that the signature at end of changes appeared to be testator's usual signature. Interestingly, the handwritten changes contained er­rors in spelling of the beneficiary names (although this was also the case in the Will as the Testator apparently suffered from dyslexia, which explained the mistakes).

The Court granted the probate application, and in so doing, it found that the handwritten changes could be understood independently of the typed text, such that they were found to constitute a valid holograph Codicil to the original Will. In coming to its decision the Court was guided by its stated policy to do everything possible to give effect to testamentary writings in holograph form. 

While this is an Alberta case, the applicable legislation is similar to ours, and it makes for an interesting read.  

Have a good day,

Natalia Angelini

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on August 23, 2010 (boomark / email).