Re Adams
A will was revoked where the testatrix heavily scored out her signature and other parts with a ballpoint pen so that they were no longer apparent, which amounted to destroying the will.
Facts
The testatrix sent her will to her solicitors with instructions to destroy it, but they returned it to her. After her death, the will was found with her signature, the signatures of the witnesses and other parts heavily scored over with a ballpoint pen, so that they could not be read by ordinary means. The question was whether the will had been revoked by destruction.
Legal principle
Judge Paul Baker QC held that the will had been revoked. He said that the scoring out of the signatures, so that they were no longer apparent on an inspection of the will by ordinary means, amounted to otherwise destroying the will within section 20 of the Wills Act 1837, because the essential part of the will, the signature, had been destroyed. Taken together with the evidence of the testatrix's intention to destroy the will, this was sufficient to revoke it. The test was whether the words were apparent on the face of the document, without the use of special techniques.
Related cases on revocation, construction and failure of gifts
- Cheese v Lovejoy (1877) 2 PD 251
- Re Cleaver [1981] 1 WLR 939
- Gill v Gill [1909] P 157
- Re Goodchild [1997] 1 WLR 1216
- Healey v Brown [2002] EWHC 1405 (Ch), [2002] WTLR 849
- Re Jones [1976] Ch 200
- Kell v Charmer (1856) 23 Beav 195
- Olins v Walters [2008] EWCA Civ 782, [2009] Ch 212
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