When Can a Will Draftman’s Notes Be Admissible to Interpret a Will Meaning?

Re Hoedl Estate 2012 ONSC 6857 involves the issue of whether the drafting solicitors notes are admissible at a hearing to interpret a will meaning.

The executor of the deceased estate was also the solicitor who drafted the will.

The executor initially advised of one proposed distribution of the residue, and then subsequently advised of the second proposal after checking his notes made at the time of drafting the will.

The executor brought a court application for interpretation of the will in order to resolve the confusion created by the two conflicting proposed distributions of the residue.

One of the residual beneficiaries brought a motion for an order that the lawyer’s notes made at the time of the drafting of the will should not be admitted at the hearing.

That motion was dismissed and the notes were admissible at the hearing.

The court found that the wills meaning was clear and that his words were supported by the contemporaneous notes. The notes would not have been admissible to contradict clear words of the will.

However here if the will was ambiguous and could be read in two ways, and the notes would be admissible as extrinsic evidence to clarify the testator’s intention.

12 In Robinson Estate v. Robinson, 2011 ONCA 493(Ont. C.A.) (CanLII), the court reaffirmed the general principal that extrinsic evidence of a testator’s intention is not admissible in the face of an unambiguous will. However, Juriansz, J.A., speaking for the court, said the following, at para. 24:

Of course, it is always possible that the testator’s expression of her testamentary intentions may be imperfect. When a will takes effect and is being interpreted, the testator is no longer available to clarify her intentions. Extrinsic evidence is admissible to aid the construction of the will. The trend in Canadian jurisprudence is that extrinsic evidence of the testator’s circumstances and those surrounding the making of the will may be considered, even if the language of the will appears clear and unambiguous on first reading. Indeed, it may be that the existence of an ambiguity is only apparent in the light of the surrounding circumstances.

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