8 Mar 2018
The Court was satisfied on the preparer's affidavit that the Will did not carry out the deceased's intentions due to clerical transposition errors; accordingly the Court exercised its s31 Wills Act 2007 power to correct the Will by replacing the incorrect words in clauses 3 and 4(b) to reflect the deceased's intention to gift to his wife with the specified gift over.
31 Jan 2018
Where a will contains a clerical error that prevents it carrying out the testator's clearly discernible testamentary intentions, the High Court may correct the wording using external evidence; here the clause mistakenly referenced the deceased wife (who predeceased the will) instead of the son, and correction to substitute 'my said son predeceasing me' is warranted to give effect to the testator's intention.
8 Jun 2015
The will did not carry out the will-maker's intentions because a clerical drafting error caused clause 7 to include Māori land interests which the will-maker had expressly excluded; accordingly, under s 31 of the Wills Act 2007 the Court must correct clause 7 by substituting wording excluding any interests in Māori land from the residuary estate.