Re McKeay

This interlocutory application without notice was brought under section 31 of the Wills Act 2007, seeking to correct the name of the residuary beneficiary in the will of the deceased, Joyce Elizabeth McKeay. The application was made on the basis that the name of the wrong person was inserted in the will by mistake. The application was initially considered without the consent of the person named in the will as the residuary beneficiary, Loraini Tagavira Williams, but the consent has since been obtained.

The legal issues that the court had to decide included whether the application could properly be considered on a without notice basis, under rule 7.46 of the High Court Rules, and whether the interests of justice required the application to be determined without serving notice of the application. The court was also required to determine whether the mistake in the will was sufficiently clear and strong to warrant the correction of the will.

The court concluded that the application could properly be considered on a without notice basis, under rule 7.46(3)(e) of the High Court Rules, as the interests of justice required the application to be determined without serving notice of the application. The court was satisfied that the mistake in the will was sufficiently clear and strong to warrant the correction of the will, and there was no need to trouble Mr Burgess, who had retired from the partnership and was not in good health, for further evidence. The court found that the neighbour to whom Mrs McKeay intended to leave her estate was Lorraine Claire Williams of 54A Hakeke Street, not the person immediately adjacent to her in the electoral roll.

The court ordered that the will dated 14 May 2008 be corrected by deleting the name Loraini Tagavira Williams in clause 3.2 and substituting the name Lorraine Claire Williams.