Codicil Spells Court Appearance

13 September 2010

Making even a small change to your will without professional advice can be fraught with problems.

A woman and her second husband made mirror wills with the effect that their own interest in their house passed to their own children and the rest of their estate was divided between their children and stepchildren equally.

When the wife inherited a sum of money from her family, she added a codicil to her will saying that if she predeceased her second husband, that money ‘should be divided equally between my grandchildren’.

Her husband died first and her will was not amended. When she died, the court had to decide the meaning of the codicil. Strictly, because the woman did not predecease her husband, the inherited money would pass to her children and stepchildren. However, the codicil was clearly intended to protect that money for her grandchildren.

The judge took a common-sense approach: it would be odd, indeed, if the woman had wanted to benefit her grandchildren only if she predeceased her husband. After hearing evidence from the family that her intention was for her grandchildren to inherit the money, that was the ruling of the court.

In this case, the family incurred the cost of an appearance in court because the codicil was not tightly worded enough to make clear the intentions of the deceased. Always take advice when you are considering making any change to your will.

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