Changed Will overturned by court - Article

Discussion in 'Wills & Estate Planning' started by coins, 28th Oct, 2020.

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  1. coins

    coins Well-Known Member

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    Just read this article: Sydney couple inherit multimillion-dollar Sydney Harbour estate from elderly neighbour after court battle

    Basically an elderly person promised (verbally) to leave her entire estate to her neighbour if they didn't build to block her water view and to take care of her until death. A year before passing away she updated her will, leaving her entire estate to her brother and sister equally and if she outlived them, the money was to go to two Sydney hospitals. The updated will left the neighbour with $25k. They went to court and won making the updated will invalid and inherited $40mil in property.

    Does this mean that in the future updated wills can be overturned based on verbal promises or based on past wills? Is this case setting a precedent for the future?
     
  2. Terry_w

    Terry_w Lawyer, Tax Adviser and Mortgage broker in Sydney Business Member

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    This has always been the case - estoppel. insider and outside wills.
     
  3. jaybean

    jaybean Well-Known Member

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    Makes sense I guess. Given the sort of views in that area, they may have had to make some serious compromises to their plans. The fact the property was worth $40m is irrelevant.
     
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  4. Stoffo

    Stoffo Well-Known Member

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    I doubt they could have built much further back due to the req'd distance from a waterway.

    Still, did they actually "look" after her ?
    Did they help with her housework, take her meals, take her shopping or to the Dr's or do maintenance tasks around the place ?

    If they were included in the original will and weren't "looking after her" that might have been the reason to change the will !

    Still, goes to show that your last wishes more often than not are not honoured :(
     
  5. Perp

    Perp Well-Known Member

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    Judges aren't as stupid as you seem to think. All of these factors were considered at length: Moore v Aubusson - NSW Caselaw
     
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  6. Perp

    Perp Well-Known Member

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    There's no new precedent, it just determined what the facts were in this particular case.

    As @Terry_w said, estoppel has been part of the law for a very long time. It's basically a legal equivalent of "you can't go back on your promise", except it only applies where there are mutual promises and one party has done their part (or been disadvantaged by relying on the promise).

    So if the deal had been "if you take care of my cats after I die, I'll leave you everything", that could be changed up until death, because the other party hasn't yet done their part (caring for the cats).

    In this instance, the couple had a) refrained from renovating, and b) provided care over a lengthy period. After they've done their part of the promises, you can't unilaterally decide not to do your half.

    This has also come up in the context of second marriages where each has kids from a previous marriage, eg spouses agree to leave everything to each other, provided the surviving spouse leaves everything to all kids of both. Surviving spouse is estopped from changing will after first spouse's death, to benefit only their own kids.
     
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  7. Terry_w

    Terry_w Lawyer, Tax Adviser and Mortgage broker in Sydney Business Member

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  8. Stoffo

    Stoffo Well-Known Member

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    Not saying they are....
    The article posted didn't say that they actually did look after her !
    I was wondering how they proved that, other than their words below

    *Mr Moore told the court that the elderly neighbour said they had been “so good” to her over the years and had told them “I know I can trust you to look after me” and “It’s been such a wonderful support to me having you two next door”.

    My neighbors say how good I am to them, bringing in their bin, trimming plants for them, checking in most days, taking over cake to have with a cuppa and catch up, even calling an ambulance and riding along to hospital after she broke her hip in a fall, all these things may be being nice but not really "looking after" or "caring for"
     

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