Lost will

Nichols v Hudson ChD SJ 13 October

The testator made a will providing that the two children of his third marriage and the two children of his second marriage should receive equal shares in his estate. He gave the children of his second marriage copies of his will and informed them that if he died, his widow, their stepmother, should be allowed to remain in the matrimonial home if she wanted to. When the testator died, the stepmother said that she was unable to find a will and obtained the grant of letters of administration to his estate on the basis that he had died intestate. She sold the matrimonial home and dissipated most of the sale proceeds. The claimant was one of the testator’s daughters from his second marriage who applied to revoke the grant of letters of administration and for a pronouncement in favour of the will of which she had a copy.