Summary - Care needs to be taken for gifts to
charities and not-for-profit entities where an officeholder for the
time is being appointed as executor.
Often Will makers when leaving a substantial gift to a charity
or not-for-profit entity wish to appoint an office holder in the
organization as executor of the Will.
Such an appointment was reviewed in the recent Supreme Court of
South Australia case in the
Estate of Chomiak [2012] SASC 27 (29 February 2012).
The deceased, Anna Chomiak, died in 2010, aged 93. Her Will, which
was prepared by a solicitor, nominated the "priest in
charge for the time being of the Ukranian Catholic Church at
Wayville" as her sole executor.
The Registrar of Probates in South Australia questioned whether
the appointment in the Will created what is known as a
"shifting executorship" because the phrase
"for the time being" created uncertainty as to
whether the deceased meant the priest in charge of the Church:
