Vertudaches v Public Trustee

The applicant, John Basil Vertudaches, sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia. The dispute concerned the interpretation of a will, specifically two documents admitted to probate in 1989. The applicant's primary complaint was that the majority decision of the Full Court had answered questions 1(a) and 2(a) in the affirmative, thereby construing the will as granting absolute gifts of real estate and personal property.

The legal issues before the High Court were whether the Full Court's interpretation of the will departed from established principles of testamentary construction, and if so, whether this departure constituted a matter of general importance warranting special leave to appeal. The applicant argued that the majority judgment erred in two key respects: firstly, by failing to construe every part of the will by considering its grammatical construction, and secondly, by altering an express provision of the will through an indistinct and uncertain codicil.

The applicant contended that the dissenting judgment in the Full Court adopted the correct approach to interpretation, applying proper legal principles. The applicant highlighted a concession made by the majority judge regarding the rental period for a specific property as evidence of an erroneous approach to construction, suggesting that this concession would have been unnecessary had the plain and express granting of a life interest in the real estate not been disturbed. The applicant's argument was that the majority's interpretation of a second, handwritten document by the testator had improperly altered the clear intention expressed in the initial will.