Joint Wills - Wills of Married Women - Of the Deaf and Dumb - On Making a Will - Some

Useful "Dont's"

Whilst Abroad n officer in the army once couched his will in the following terms: "Being obliged A to leave England to join my regiment in China, I leave this paper containing my wishes. Should anything unfortunately happen to me whilst abroad, I wish everything that I may be in possession of at that time, or anything appertaining to me hereafter, to be divided," etc.

The deceased returned to England from China, and died in this country; and the Courts held that this will was conditional and contingent upon his death in China, and refused probate. It was not regarded as a good military will.

Going a Journey

After the death of a testator, a will was found amongst his papers which had been made two years previously, commencing: "In case of any fatal accident happening to me, being about to travel by railway, I hereby leave all my property," etc.

It was held that this will was not a conditional one, and was not contingent upon his death by accident during the journey he was about to take. In other words, the Court decided that the testator meant no more than this, that life was uncertain and that as he was increasing the risk by undertaking a journey, he thought the time had arrived when he ought to make his will.

Joint Wills

Husband and wife executed a joint will, which was expressed to take effect in case they should be both called out of the world at the same time and by one and the same accident. The husband died in the lifetime of the wife, and as the contingency did not happen, the will was declared inoperative.

In another case a husband and wife wrote out and signed a document as their will, leaving all their property to each other, and further making provision as to what was to be done with the property in the event of the survivor dying without altering those provisions.

The wife died first, and the Court granted probate to the husband of so much only of the document as became operative through her death.

By Married Women

Since the Married Women's Property Act, 1882, probate of the will of a married woman appointing executors, though the will is made in exercise of a power and contains no disposition of property to which she was entitled outside the power, will be granted in the general form, and not as heretofore in a limited form.

The will of a married woman, dealing only with realty but appointing executors, is entitled to probate where a portion of the estate consists of personalty vested in her by virtue of the Married Women's Property Act, 1882.

By Deaf and Dumb Persons

In a case where probate was sought of the will of a testator who was deaf and dumb and illiterate, the Court required evidence on affidavit of the signs by which the testator had signified that he understood and approved of the provisions of the will before making the grant.

Hints On Making a Will

Before making your will, you must make up your mind how you intend to dispose of your property. The best advice that can be given to the layman on this subject is prefaced by a series of don'ts.

Don't attempt to use legal or technical language on any account; use the ordinary language of everyday life, stating your wishes as simply as you can.

Don't fetter your gifts, or attempt to with old with one hand what you have given with the other. The law will reject as repugnant a condition which prohibits a man or a single woman from selling or mortgaging property left them by will.

Don't trouble about your unborn posterity, let the future take care of itself. If you do not, you will probably break the rule against perpetuities, which is that a future gift is void unless it vests during a life or any number of lives in actual existence at the death of the testator and twenty-one years after.

Don't, therefore, leave your property to your unmarried children for their lives and afterwards to any grandchildren who attain the age of twenty-five years. But a man may very properly leave all his property to his widow for life, and at her death to be divided equally amongst his children. And should it so fall out that a child was born after the death of the testator, this child would, on the death of its mother, share equally with the other children, although it was not in being at the time when the testator made his will.

Don't try to hoard up your property after your death, or you may be bowled over by the Thelluson Act, which was specially passed to render invalid for the future similar schemes for accumulating enormous fortunes.

In this case, the land in question was of the yearly annual value of about £5,000, and the personalty amounted to upwards of half a million sterling. The probable amount of the accumulated fund was estimated at £23,000,000.

No testator can now direct an accumulation of "the rents, issues, profits, or produce" of his property for a longer period than twenty-one years from and immediately after his death.

Don't leave gifts to people in sealed packets or locked dispatch-boxes and jewel-cases. If you do, the recipient probably, and the executors most certainly, will have trouble with the Somerset House people about the value and duty on such legacies.

Don't, if you can afford it, leave legacies on which legatees will have to pay duty. It is a pity to "spoil the ship for a ha'porth o' tar." Add to your bequest of £100 the words, "free of legacy duty," and direct your executors to pay the amount.