Case Note: Crown v Holt [2024] WASC 332

Introduction

This recent decision of Justice Cobby of the Supreme Court of Western Australia concerned an unusual situation that had arisen. As is often the case in litigation that arises from the aftermath of a person's passing, the case turns on its own facts, and those facts are very human.

The plaintiff brought an application to the Court for due administration of the estate of their father, the late Mr Holt. The application was levelled against the defendant, who was the named executor of Mr Holt's Will. The defendant was another of Mr Holt's children. The plaintiff had legally changed her name to the mononym, "Crown". Crown had used several different legal names during her lifetime and had seemingly distanced herself from the name Jennifer Alexander, which appeared in Mr Holt's Will.