Re Sheehan

The case of Re Sheehan involved an application for the probate of an informal will executed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The deceased, Stanislaus Kevin Sheehan, was admitted to hospital and executed the will and accompanying schedule via audio-visual means, with the witnesses also participating remotely. The will was incomplete as the deceased failed to sign one page and the schedule. The applicants, Matthew Paul Loveday and Noel James Sheehan, sought to have the document recognised as the deceased's will and to be granted probate.

The court had to determine whether the document signed by the deceased should operate as his will and whether probate should be granted. The legal issues revolved around the execution of the will, the informality of the document, and whether the court could invoke its remedial power under s 18 of the Succession Act 1981 (Qld) to recognise the document as the deceased's will. The court examined whether there was a document purporting to state the deceased's testamentary intentions, whether the deceased intended the document to form his will, and if the evidence established this intention on the balance of probabilities.

The court held that the document in question did embody the deceased's testamentary intentions and that the deceased intended it to operate as his will. The court was satisfied that the document was the deceased's last will, despite the informality of its execution and the omission to sign one page and a schedule. The court found that the evidence, when evaluated according to the Briginshaw principles, demonstrated that the deceased intended the document to be his final will. The court invoked its remedial power under s 18 of the Succession Act 1981 (Qld) to recognise the document as the deceased's will and ordered that probate be granted to the applicants.

Pursuant to s 18 of the Succession Act 1981 (Qld), the will signed by the deceased on 2 November 2020 is recognised as his last will. Subject to the formal requirements of the Registrar, a grant of probate of the copy of the will that is exhibit 1 in this proceeding is made to the applicants, Matthew Paul Loveday and Noel James Sheehan, as executors.