Estate of Beauchamp [2014] NZHC 2006 (22 August 2014)

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Estate of Beauchamp [2014] NZHC 2006 (22 August 2014)

Last Updated: 21 October 2014

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND WELLINGTON REGISTRY

CIV-2014-485-10800 [2014] NZHC 2006

IN THE MATTER	of the estate of MICHAEL de CHARMES BEAUCHAMP
AND	PETER BRADFORD JOHNS WENDY LENORE BEAUCHAMP Applicants

On the papers:
Counsel:	S J Scannell for Applicants
Judgment:	22 August 2014

_{JUDGMENT OF WILLIAMS J}

[1] The applicants seek an order under s 14 of the Wills Act 2007 (the Act)

declaring a document as a valid will.

[2] The applicants are executors under the document. The second named executor is the deceased’s former wife. The first named executor is the deceased’s friend. The deceased had a valid will dated 3 June 1994 in which Wendy Beauchamp was to be the sole executor. In that will he left his entire estate to her absolutely unless she should predecease him. If she did he left the residuary estate to any infant children on trust until they should reach the age of 25 and then vesting absolutely.

[3] The document the subject of this application is a draft will prepared sometime in 2014 by the same Hastings solicitors who prepared the valid will. I have identified above the executors under that document. The document provides for bequests – $20,000 to a friend, Karen Shailer, and a mini motor vehicle to the co- executor Peter Johns. The remainder is to be vested in a trust to be distributed on

_{30 June 2016 – with one-third to each of his three daughters: Lorna Caroline Stanley,}

ESTATE OF MICHAEL DE CHARMES BEAUCHAMP [2014] NZHC 2006 [22 August 2014]

Joanne Cherie Beauchamp, and Ellen Beth Beauchamp. The allocation to Ellen Beth Beauchamp is to be held on further trust until she reaches 30 years. The trustees of that second trust are however empowered to release funds to the beneficiary before that date in order for her to purchase a home or for other special purposes, provided her mother (the co-executor) Wendy Beauchamp consents.

[4] All parties I have mentioned here consent to the validation of this document as the deceased’s will. The document is not a valid will in terms of s 11 of the Act, because it has not been executed or attested. It clearly purports to be a will and was intended to be such. The deceased simply did not get around to signing it. I have no doubt that it represents the deceased’s testamentary intentions and so the requirements of s 14 are satisfied.

[5] In light of the consent of all affected parties, it is in order for me to validate the document as the will of the deceased.

Williams J