An exceedingly good will?
27 November 2024
The Guardian has reported that the High Court has found a will, prepared on two separate cardboard food packages, to be valid.
Malcolm Chenery died in 2021. Shortly before his death he made a will, his neighbours witnessing only the signing of the second ‘page’. He left his estate (which included a house, cash and a collection of ornaments and pottery) to the charity Diabetes UK. Mr Chenery had written his will on two separate cardboard food packages, one for Young’s frozen fish and the other for Mr Kipling’s mince pies. The provisions detailed on the frozen fish packaging bequeathed the house and its contents to Diabetes UK, but could not, automatically, be read as part of the same document as the mince pie packaging.
Diabetes UK’s claim to Mr Chenery’s estate was not immediately admitted to probate because his will had been written on two separate, unattached packages.
However, the High Court ruled that the will is valid and satisfies the requirements of the Wills Act 1837. Diabetes UK’s claim to admit the will to probate was supported by Mr Chenery’s family members; its barrister submitted that ‘an intestacy would frustrate the testator’s [Mr Chenery’s] intentions in light of what the family say about his intentions’. The family members appear to have been motivated in their decision not to challenge the will by the fact that diabetes runs in the family.
The judge in the case held that Mr Chenery was presumed not to have ‘intended to die intestate’ and that ‘she was satisfied that the two documents should be admitted….to probate as the last will [of Mr Chenery]’.
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