S 58 WESA and Suicide Note Found to be Will

In an uncontested application Re the Estate of David Woolrich, deceased Vancouver Registry V140043 ( unreported dated January 21,2015, ), Justice Russell approved a short 4 page hand printed suicide note of the deceased as his last will and testament under the curative powers of S 58 WESA.

Affidavit materials filed made it clear that it was the deceased who wrote the note and that it was his final testamentary intention.

To the writer’s knowledge this was the first of such an order in BC, and the court  substantially followed the law of Manitoba as I had predicted last year in some blogs when the WESA legislation was introduced.

In particular the court adopted Manitoba’s leading case on the court’s curative effect to remedy otherwise defective wills as set out in George v Daily ( 1997) 1`43 DLR (4th) Man CA and its discussion of determining the testators last testamentary intentions.

The court also followed law from Nova Scotia to support it conclusion, namely Furlotte v MvAllister 2005 NBQB 310 and Sweeney Cunningham Estate v Sweeney 2013 NSSC 299 to further illustrate the required” fixed and final intentions” in other contexts.