The chain of executorship when the executor dies before finishing his or her duties refers to where probate has been taken by an executor who survives the original testator, the right of such executor to a grant of probate does not cease and the representation to and the administration of the testator’s estate devolves to his executor. Re Aikins Estate (1963) 41 W.W.R. 226, at 227
4 Re Aikins Estate (1963) 41 W.W.R. 226, a decision of Friesen, Surr. Ct. J., where that learned judge gave a careful decision in a similar matter and refused the order. In his reasons, Friesen, Surr. Ct. J., at p. 227, quoted from Macdonell & Sheard’s Probate Practice at p. 113 as follows:
‘… if a sole executor, or the survivor of several executors, having proved the will, dies without having completed the administration of the estate, his executor when he proves the will becomes the executor of the original testator. It is only an executor who has proved the will who can transmit the executorship, and, therefore, if the executor named predeceases the testator or dies without having taken probate there must be an administration.’
One of the leading cases on the topic in British Columbia is O’Gorman Estates (1965) 51 WWR 762
