Estate of Bruss

Ivan John Cockroft has applied to the High Court of New Zealand for an order under section 14 of the Wills Act 2007 that a document be declared the valid will of Margaret Patricia Bruss, who died on 13 July 2019. This application arises from the fact that the document does not comply with the formal requirements for wills set out in section 11 of the Wills Act, as it was not witnessed and dated. The main legal issue before the court was whether the document in question represents the testamentary intentions of Ms Bruss.

The court found that the document did represent Ms Bruss's testamentary intentions. This conclusion was reached by considering the content of the document and the circumstances surrounding its creation, as well as the relevant case law. The court acknowledged that the document did not allocate the residue of Ms Bruss's estate but found that this was because she had not yet decided on the allocation at the time she signed the document. The court considered that it was clear Ms Bruss intended for the document to be her last will and testament, and that her specific bequests had accounted for the majority of her estate. The court determined that the residue should be dealt with according to the rules of intestacy under the Administration Act 1969.

The court declared that the document, dated "2018" and signed by Ms Bruss on all three pages, expressed her testamentary intentions, and ordered that the resulting intestacy in relation to the residue of her estate be dealt with in accordance with the Administration Act 1969.