A testamentary document may be set aside if it is not accurately representative of a testator’s intentions, for reasons such as an innocent mistake on behalf of the testator or solicitor, or the fraud of another.
In the British Columbia Supreme Court case of Johnson v Pelkey (1997) 36 BCLR (3d) 40, the Court stated that “any will that does not express the real or true ‘intention’ of the testator will be set aside, even if the testator had testamentary capacity, and was not subject to undue influence.”
Additionally, in Coleman v Coleman Estate, 2008 NSSC 396 (CanLii), the Nova Scotia Supreme Court observed that even if testamentary capacity is found to exist, it is possible that a testator did not properly know or appreciate the contents of their will due to an innocent mistake or by the fraud of another. As established in Vout v Hay, [1995] 2 SCR 876, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the propounder of a will must demonstrate “that the testator knew and approved of the contents of the will.”
When drafting a will, there is a duty on the solicitor drafting the testamentary document to make necessary inquiries. This duty is required so that the solicitor can demonstrate, based on discussions with the testator, that the testator fully appreciated what he or she was doing when they made the will.
In Johnson v Pelkey, the British Columbia Supreme Court found that there were differences between the solicitor’s notes and what appeared in the executed will, there were errors in the will, a property lot was left out of the will entirely, and an intended gift was missing. The solicitor testified these omissions were his mistakes or that his instructions may have been changed between receiving them and the execution. It was reported that upon the solicitor’s review of the will with the testator, the testator did not notice any of the omissions, errors and ambiguities.
When considering whether the testator had the knowledge of his or her testamentary document as well as approval of the contents of his or her will, based on mistake, are matters of fact to be determined based on all of the evidence of the case.
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