UNDER Section 14 of the Wills Act 2007 IN THE MATTER of the Estate of Alfred Freeman Jones CHRISTINE CLARE CARTER AND NGAIRE CARA JONES Applicants

[2024] NZHC 2579

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND WELLINGTON REGISTRY

I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA TE WHANGANUI-A-TARA ROHE

CIV-2024-485-570

[2024] NZHC 2579

UNDER

Section 14 of the Wills Act 2007

IN THE MATTER

of the Estate of Alfred Freeman Jones

CHRISTINE CLARE CARTER AND NGAIRE CARA JONES

Applicants

Hearing:	On the papers
Appearances:	J L Silvester for Applicants
Judgment:	9 September 2024

JUDGMENT OF McHERRON J

[1]                 Christine Carter and Ngaire Jones seek an order declaring a document to be a valid will of Alfred Freeman Jones.1 I allow their application for the following reasons.

Background

[2]                 On 25 June 2023, Alfred Jones called at the offices of Beattie Rickman Legal with his sister Mrs Carter, intending to give his instructions for a new will. Janice Patterson, a registered legal executive employed by Beattie Rickman, wrote down Mr Jones’ answers to the questions in a will questionnaire.

[3]                 Ms Patterson deposes that, after she had written down his answers, Mr Jones signed and dated the will questionnaire in his own handwriting in the presence of

1      Wills Act 2007, s 14.

ESTATE OF A F JONES [2024] NZHC 2579 [9 September 2024]

Mrs Carter and herself. However, neither Mrs Carter nor Ms Patterson signed the document.2

[4]                 In her affidavit, Ms Patterson refers to some “white-out” corrections made to the document before Mr Jones signed and dated it. Ms Patterson also refers to a gift recorded in the document of motor vehicles and a caravan to Mr Jones’s brother Richard Jones. Ms Patterson deposes that Mr Jones could not remember the make or model of the caravan and asked to  go home to confirm  these details  and contact  Ms Patterson to add them to the instructions. Mr Jones and  Mrs Carter contacted  Ms Patterson later in the day and Ms Patterson added the words “Coachman Amara” to Mr Jones’s description of the caravan.

[5]                 The document appoints Mrs Carter and Ms Jones as Mr Jones’s executors and trustees. The document also makes some specific gifts of money to named organisations and individuals. The document provides that two of Mr Jones’s named nephews and one of his named nieces are to receive the residue of his estate and that if any of his beneficiaries died before him, his or her share would be gifted over to their children.

[6]                 Mrs Carter and Ms Jones depose that Mr Jones had an earlier will, executed on 23 December 1971. However, they point out that this will was revoked when Mr Jones married Valerie Jones on 11 January 1975.3 Valerie Jones died on 24 October 1986. Mr Jones did not subsequently marry or enter into a civil union and Mrs Carter and Ms Jones depose that, when he died, he was not living in a de facto relationship.

[7]                 Mrs Carter and Ms Jones depose that they have made full enquiries and searches for an earlier will made by Mr Jones apart from the document now sought to be validated, but they have not found any later or earlier will executed by him apart from the 1971 will. They therefore depose that, apart from the document sought to be validated, Mr Jones would otherwise be wholly intestate.

2      Section 11(4)(b) of the Wills Act requires at least two witnesses to each sign the document in the will-maker’s presence.

3      Wills Act 1837 (UK), s 18.

[8]                 Mrs Carter and Ms Jones have helpfully provided consents of all of those who could claim an interest in Mr Jones’s estate on an intestacy. These individuals comprise the living siblings of Mr Jones and the three children of Mr Jones’s deceased sister, Yvonne Adams (Mr Jones’s nephews and niece).

[9]                 Finally, Mrs Carter and Ms Jones depose that they have made reasonable enquiries under the Status of Children Act 1969 as to the existence of a parent or child of Mr Jones who could claim an interest in the estate by reason only of that Act and the enactments governing the distribution of intestate estates. Those enquiries, which include those required by s 5A(2) of the Status of Children Act 1969, resulted in no discovery of any such parent or child. Mrs Carter and Ms Jones have annexed a certificate from the Office of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Citizenship confirming the absence of a record of any such parent or child.

My assessment

[10]             Based on the materials supplied by Mrs Carter and Ms Jones, I am satisfied that the document, a copy of which was filed by them with their application, and is annexed to their affidavit marked “A” and is signed by Mr Jones and dated 25 May 2023, expresses Alfred Jones’s testamentary intentions. I am also satisfied that all persons who may be potentially affected by the granting of the order have consented to the application.

Result

[11]             The application can proceed without notice. The document, a copy of which is exhibited to the affidavit of Janice Mary Patterson and marked “A”, is hereby declared to be a valid will of Alfred Freeman Jones.

McHerron J

Solicitors:

Beattie Rickman Legal, Hamilton