SOLDIERS' WILLS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 5 March 1917, Page 6

SOLDIERS' WILLS.

AN IMPORTANT RULING.

An important judgment regarding soldiers ' wills was given by his Honor Mr Justice Chapman in the Supreme Court at "Wellington on Wednesday. His Honor, had been asked by the solicitor for the Public Trust Office (Mr J. W. Macdonald) to ascertain whether the Public Trustee can, under Section IS of the Amending Act of 1913, elect to administer the estate of a soldien who las left an unsigned will, the circumstances being such that the Court, if applied to, would admit it to probate. His Honour said that the powers conferred by Section 18 were very extensive. The Public Trustee was empowered, where a person has died testate, and he had entitled to probate, but no grant of probate had been made, to elect to administer such person '.s estate where it was estimated by him that the estate did not exceed £4OO in value. In cases to which that applied the Public Trustee simply filed an election to administer, which was taken to effect proof of the will and rendered probate unnecessary. This the Publie Trustee did, "after due inquiries," an expression which assumed that he would make a judicial investigation in order to ascertain whether the will had been duly executed. Since 1914 the Court had, under the special reservation in Section 11 of of the Wills Act relating to such cases, granted many probates of soldiers' wills unattested, even unsigned, and in some cases made by word of mouth only. The question was now raised whether the Public Trustee could elect to administer in the case of an unsigned will. The opening words of Section 18 were certainly wide enough to include anything that might be accepted as a will, but it was obvious that there were restraining words in the section. The Publie Trustee as a condition was charged with the duty of stating in the election that he believed that the document which he annexed to it was the testator's last will. That, his council admitted, excluded a verbal will, which was not a document, and could not be annexed. He was satisfied, however, that that . was not the limit of the restriction. 'A signed but unattested will was a complete document, and when signed had in those cases very much the same value as a holograph will has in countries where such wills are permitted. An unsigned will was a mere piece of evidence to be connected by means of other evidence or of presumptions with an act of the testator wherby he declared that he contained his will. H e could not say that it was a document in the sense in which the expression was here used. It was not a document, and, construing the Act as a plain man with an ordinary knowledge of English would construe it, it was not executed. Such wills must therefore be presented for probate in the ordinary way.