Nt1330 Unit 5 Assignment

Emily Maehara n9453351

Question 1: Summary of material facts prior to the appeal hearing.

On 16 October 2012, Nora Priscilla Lindsay passed away at aged 90. Her estate comprised of her family home, which was then sold for around $630,000, a small amount in a passbook at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and 15 CBA shares. 1

She had divorced her husband back in 1971 and was taken care by her son, Geoffrey Lindsay (the appellant), and her daughter, Heather McGrath (the respondent).

On 17 June 2013, the appellant was granted letter of administration on intestacy. Shortly after, the appellant discovered a document, a copy of which is annexed to the reasons. It was not unclear that the document was written and signed by the deceased. …show more content…
There is no evidence that the envelope was sealed and the deceased completed none of the formal parts on the envelope. It is unclear whether the deceased altered the document after placing it in the envelope.12 The deceased had written her name on the document. However the writing is not in the form of a signature and does not accord with examples of the deceased’s signature on other documents. The writing occurred at the time of the initial preparation of the handwritten document and was unclear if the document was now in its final form. 13

The lack of evidence in regards to the deceased forming this general intention is significant. The evidence of the deceased not wanting to make changes to the document is needed. The changes were made indicatively given the contents of the document further consideration after its initial preparation. That is consistent with the handwritten document being subject to “further thought, deliberation or possible revision”. 14 Referring to the New South Wales Court of Appeal decision in Hatsatouris v Hatsatouris, his honour was not satisfied that s 18 had been …show more content…
Establishing testamentary intentions by reference to a Will is different to establishing settled testamentary intentions by reference to an informal document. This case confirms that satisfying this element of s 18 is crucial. It will not be sufficient to simply put a document containing testamentary wishes before a court without some evidence that the deceased intended the document to be his/her final Will.

The Parliament has contributed directly to the decision of the case. The Parliament, which is the Australian Government is responsible of making new laws and amend existing laws. They also represent the people of Australia and provide a place where government is formed, while keeping check on the work of the government. From this particular case, they would have needed to consider changing s 18 of the Act to prevent similar tribulations in the future. The Parliament House is located in Cnr of George and Alice Streets, Brisbane, QLD,

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