A Queensland woman who created three identical copies of her will before she died unwittingly creating a tricky problem that had to be solved by a Supreme Court judge.
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In June 2017, the woman executed her will but by creating three identical copies of the same document, left uncertainty over which of the three was created last and would thus be considered her final will.
After she died, the executor of her will was forced to take the documents to the Cairns Supreme Court to identify which of the three identical wills was actually the woman's last.
Judge James Henry said the woman's act of writing out three copies, "doubtless calculated at
providing multiple copies of the same document for the convenience of others, have ironically given rise to inconvenience".
In his judgment, Judge Henry said when identical wills were discovered, the "proper course" was to submit all of the documents to probate, or the process of proving a deceased person's final will in court.
But because none of the three wills written out by the woman contained a revocation clause, it was impossible to determine which document was written last.
Judge Henry said because there was no revocation clause, and the will dealt with the woman's entire estate, the best solution was simply to select one of the three documents and mark it as the final will.
"I have marked one of those documents with the letter A, initialling it and now order a grant of probate of that will be granted to the executor," he said.
