In a decision out of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, a computer file prepared by the deceased was accepted as a will and admitted to probate. Applying the curative provisions of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, S.B.C. 2009, c. 13 (“WESA”), which came into force on March 31, 2014, the court was able to conclude that the computer record represented the deceased’s full and final testamentary intentions.

In Hubschi Estate (Re), 2019 BCSC 2040 (CanLII), the deceased died after a short illness. No formal will was found. However, his family was able to locate a Word document on his computer labelled “Budget for 2017”. In that computer file, there was the following statement: “Get a will made out at some point. A 5-way assets split for remaining brother and sisters. Greg and Annette or Trevor as executor.”

By way of family background, the deceased was given up by his birth mother at birth to Children’s Aid. At age 3, the deceased was placed in a foster home with the Stacks. He grew up in the Stack house, and was extremely close to his foster parents and 5 foster siblings. He was treated by the immediate and extended Stack family as a member of the family. Upon his foster mother’s death, her estate was divided into 6 shares, with one share passing to the deceased.

On the other hand, if the document was not found to be a will, the deceased’s estate would pass on an intestacy, and would pass to his birth mother’s sister, with whom the deceased had no contact whatsoever.

The court reviewed a number of decisions applying WESA. The court observed that the purpose of the curative provisions in WESA was to avoid the injustice of a deceased’s testamentary intentions being defeated for no good reason other than strict non-compliance with execution and attestation formalities.

In order to obtain probate of a non-compliant document, the propounder must demonstrate (1) that the testamentary document is authentic, and (2) that the testamentary document contains the full, final and fixed intention of the will-maker. The court found that both of these requirements were met in the Hubschi case.

Previously, I blogged on an Australian case where an unsent text message was admitted to probate under similar legislation. Read about it here. This decision was referred to by the court in Hubschi.

For better or for worse, Ontario legislation does not allow for substantial compliance with the formalities of will execution, and strict compliance is required. While this may lead to greater certainty, it also means that the testamentary intentions of a will-maker are often disregarded where there is not strict compliance with the formal requirements of execution.

Have a great weekend.

Paul Trudelle