Supreme Court finds will to be valid even though it was signed by the wrong person

At the end of January this year the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the case of Marley v Rawlings and Another.  The case concerned the wills of Maureen and Alfred Rawlings.  They made identical wills at the same time but due to a mix up at their solicitor’s offices, they each signed one another’s will.  The wills left their estates firstly to the surviving spouse and on the death of the second spouse, to Mr. Marley, to whom the couple were not related.

Mrs Rawlings died first and her estate passed automatically to her husband by the doctrine known as ‘survivorship’.  The mistake was therefore only noticed on the death of Mr. Rawlings.  His sons sought to argue that their father’s will was invalid because it had in fact been signed by their mother.  If the will was invalid the sons would inherit the estate of their father under the rules of intestacy (or any previous valid will which favoured them). 

The case went through the court system, ending up in the Supreme Court.  The court took a common sense approach to the case.  Lord Neuberger said ‘The aim is to identify the intention of the party or parties to the document by interpreting the words used in their documentary, factual and commercial context’.  In this case there was no doubt that both Mr. and Mrs Rawlings had ultimately wanted Mr. Marley to inherit their estate and the court gave effect to that intention.

The legal doctrine exercised by the Supreme Court is known as ‘rectification’ and had previously been used to fix minor matters such as typing errors.  This decision provides for a much wider application of the principle in the future, with the intention of the party making the will being the guiding principle.  However, a word of caution, taking matters of this type to court takes time and costs a great deal of money.  The much better course is to get your will right in the first place.

If you are considering making a will or have any issues with a will that has already been made, please call us on 01302 327 257 to discuss how we may be able to help you.