By Darryl Browne -
Key decisions
- Re Sampson [2024] VSC 351 and McHugh Pettit v Waters Pettit [2024] WASC 328 (Severance by divorce)
- Kemp v Findlay [2024] NSWSC 902, Kemp v Findlay (No 2) [2024] NSWSC 1157, Selig v Selig [2024] QSC 189 and In the Will of James Edmond O’Connor (deceased); Ex parte Lennox [2024] QSC 224 (Informal will and costs)
- Gatt v Vella [2024] NSWSC 1009 (Executor accounting)
- Dedakis v Deligiannis; The estate of Rebecca Deligiannis (also known as Rebeka Deligiannis) [2024] NSWSC 1018 (Essential validity of will)
- Flowers v Scavella (Bahamas) [2024] UKPC 25 (Payment of estate debts)
- Law Society’s List of independent administrators
Non-revocation of appointment of executor by divorce
Claire and Colin Sampson separated in 2014. Colin made a will in 2016 appointing Claire as his executor. They divorced in 2018. He died in 2022. The issue in Re Sampson [2024] VSC 351 (Moore J) was whether Claire’s appointment as executor was revoked by reason of the Victorian legislation which is roughly equivalent to section 13 of the Succession Act 2006 (NSW). That section provides that the divorce of a testator revokes an appointment of the testator’s former spouse as an executor unless a contrary intention appears in the will.
The Court noted:
‘[n]o temporal requirement is apparent as to when the existence of a contrary intention is to be ascertained; for example, at the time the will was made, at the time of the divorce, or some other time. Neither is there any requirement specified as to the form or manner in which the contrary intention is to appear: for example, in the will; by the words, conduct or writing of the testator; or by surrounding circumstances’ (at [27]).
