New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Informal/unwitnessed wills
  • 3 Mar 2023

    RE ESTATE OF ROBERT IAN MOORCOCK [2023] NZHC 388

    Citation
    [2023] NZHC 388
    Court
    High Court

    The document, though undated and unwitnessed, was declared a valid will because, on the balance of probabilities, contemporaneous and corroborating evidence (affidavits from the applicant, the deceased's partner and the solicitor who prepared a draft) established that the document embodied the deceased's testamentary intentions—particularly that the bulk of the estate was to go to daughter Tina—and there was no cogent opposing evidence to outweigh that proof.