Revoking a Will: Carry’s Journey Through Destruction and Decision

Revoking a Will by destruction

The law allows a person to revoke their will by destroying it.  This is set out in Section 20 of the Wills Act 1837.

It can be destroyed “by the burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the same by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his direction, with the intention of revoking the same.”

In a recent case the Court had to decide whether the will maker had directed a person to destroy a will on her behalf.

Background

Carry Keats died at the age of 92, leaving behind an estate worth around £800,000. In Carry’s Will, she had intended to distribute her estate to her cousins. Whilst spending her last few weeks in hospital, Carry decided against her wishes in her Will following a disagreement with her cousins and wanted to ensure that they were disinherited from her estate.

Carry asked her solicitor to visit her in hospital and to bring her Will. When her solicitor visited, she informed Carry that by destroying her Will, her estate would follow the intestacy rules, meaning that her sister would inherit her entire estate. The solicitor was also able to ascertain that Carry had capacity when making her decision.

Carry then proceeded to destroy her Will by tearing it, however she was too weak to tear the whole document and had only managed to tear up three-quarters of the way through. As a result, she requested her solicitor to tear through the rest of the Will by nodding at her.

Trial

Carry’s cousins took the case to court, claiming that the Will was still valid as she was too weak to rip through the whole document with her own hands. They also claimed that Carry did not want her sister to inherit anything from her estate as they had a love-hate relationship, and that she did not have the mental capacity to make decisions regarding her estate whilst being ill in hospital. They also claimed that Carry nodding to the solicitor to tear through the rest of her Will should not satisfy the requirement of successfully destroying a Will.

Carry’s sister, Josephine Oakley argued that her sister had the capacity to know what she was doing and that Carry justified her decision to remove her cousins from her Will after they suggested she go into a care home.

Judgment

Deputy Master John Linwood ruled that Carry had the capacity when deciding to disinherit her cousins from her Will and that the Will had been destroyed as described in the Wills Act 1837 as it was destroyed with intent and because it was entirely torn. The Judge also stated that there was positive communication between Carry and her solicitor when Carry nodded for the rest of the Will to be torn.

Conclusion

This case highlights the importance of section 20 of the Wills Act 1837 as it shows that another person can help the testator in destroying their Will if the testator had directed them to. This was heavily relied on in this case as the judge pointed out the “positive communication” when Carry nodded to her solicitor to destroy her Will.