Case information

None.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Wills and estates – Wills – Testator’s intention – Revocation clause – Whether the fact that a will was read over by or to the testator is conclusive evidence that she must be presumed to have known and approved of all of its terms – Whether mistake by a testator as to the legal effect of a provision of her will precludes the court’s probate power to order the deletion of such words on the basis of the testator’s mistake – Whether the court’s probate power to order the deletion of a part of a will on the basis that the testator did not know and approve of it is restricted to limited circumstances – Whether there should be total or partial unification of the principles dealing with the probate and interpretation issues relating to mistake of a testator – Whether the equitable remedy of rectification should apply to wills.

Blanca Robinson (the “testator”) owned property in Spain, England and Canada. In a Will executed in Spain, she made clear that the Spanish Will would deal with her European property and her Canadian Will would deal with her Canadian property. Several years later, knowing she had a short time to live, she asked her Canadian solicitor to revise her Canadian Will and add a special bequest. The solicitor prepared the revised will in accordance with her instructions and routinely added a clause revoking all prior wills. The solicitor did not know about and the testator did not mention the existence of the Spanish Will. The testator approved and signed the Canadian Will. After she died, the solicitor for the first time learned about the Spanish Will.

The estate trustee brought an application to the court for advice and direction regarding the interpretation of the Canadian Will executed by the testator in August, 2006 and in particular the interpretation of the revocation clause. A second application, supported by the estate trustee, was brought by a beneficiary, Richard Rondel, for an order setting aside the grant of probate and rectifying the 2006 Canadian Will by deleting the revocation clause. The application judge concluded that the revocation clause could not be deleted and Rondel’s application for rectification was dismissed. Appeals to the Court of Appeal were also dismissed.