Nora Lindsay Case Study

1. Material Facts.
Nora Lindsay was born on the 3 March 1922. In 1951 she was married to David Hill Lindsay and in 1971, divorced her husband where they did not remain on agreeable terms. In 1986 Nora Lindsay made a Will with the Public Trustee of Queensland but afterwards revoked it. In 2008, Ms. Lindsay stated that she had left “everything” to the appellant in her Will. Nora Lindsay passed away on 16 October 2012, aged 90 and was survived be her two children; the appellant, Geoffrey Lindsay and the respondent, Heather McGrath. The appellant considered that the deceased may have passed away without a last Will and was granted Letters of Administration on the basis of intestacy. The appellant obtained a five-page handwritten document from
The observations of Kirby P in this case provided that when the court is able to draw sufficient evidence from an informal document that the deceased intended to direct the bestowal of his or her property after death, such documents constituted the deceased’s Will. These observations were supported by Justice Hodgson’s in Costa v The Public Trustee of NSW. Justice Basten also identified from Pahlow-Silady v Siladi that the deceased’s understanding of the nature of the will is a relevant consideration in assessing intention. The case of The Public Trustee v Gerritsen was also referred to with respect to the third element from Hatsatouris. Justice Beech concluded that documents which are written and signed by the deceased do not require evidence of separate acts or words to support his or her intention that the document constitutes their
This evidence was found from from the formal approach the deceased took when writing the will and the support of the deceased’s intentions with a statement in 2008. This formal evidence included writing her name, address and date of birth at the top of the first page, by adopting language commonly used when writing wills such as ‘being of sound mind’ and ‘bequeath’ and also by signing the document. Further evidence of the deceased’s intentions was also supported by the fact that the deceased placed the document, along with other important documents, in an envelope that stated “this contains the Will of”. Furthermore, by the deceased informing the appellant of her will and intentions in 2008, Her Honour drew the conclusion that the deceased intended the document to take effect upon her death, finalizing her intentions for the document to form her