Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 19 August 2022.
Ruth never married and has no children. She has assets valued at $1 million.
Ruth goes online and searches for a will-making service. She completes an online questionnaire, nominating her sister as executor and sole beneficiary of her estate. She pays for the will online, using a credit card.
She writes an unsent text message, stating that she has “drawn-up and completed a will”, followed by a link to the website.
Unfortunately, Ruth tragically passes-away shortly thereafter, without receiving a final draft of the finished will and without executing it in the presence of two witnesses, being the legal requirements to make a valid will.
Searches for any other wills that Ruth may have made are unsuccessful, and in order to deal with her estate, Ruth’s sister makes an application to the Supreme Court, seeking a ruling that the Court will dispense with the formal requirements of making a will and declare the online questionnaire as being a “document”, sufficient to form a valid will.
The Court reviews the meaning of a “document”, as set out in the Interpretation Act, which states that a document is “something from which images or writings can be reproduced with or without the aid of anything else”. The Court rules that the online questionnaire was in fact a document.
The Court also finds that the online questionnaire, was capable of being described as a will because it “was a statement of the deceased’s wishes for this disposition of property after death”.
The Court considers it relevant that the questionnaire was completed relatively close to the time of Ruth’s death, in terms of establishing the intention to make a will and despite the closeness to her death, found that there was no evidence that she did not have the capacity to make a will.
The Court ultimately finds that Ruth had intended for the online questionnaire to operate as a legal will and after a one day hearing, grants probate.
Email Manny Wood, principal solicitor at TB Law at manny@tblaw.net.au or call him on (02) 66 487 487.
