An Australian case in which a court recognised an unsent text
message as a man's Will raises questions that Jersey's
Royal Court will one day have to answer, says Ogier Counsel
Victoria Grogan.
Victoria says that the Brisbane Supreme Court case of a man who
wrote his last Will as a phone text message shortly before taking
his own life, but did not send it, highlights how the law needs to
keep up with modern life.
The unsent text message named the man's brother and nephew
as his sole beneficiaries and gave nothing to his wife from whom he
had recently split.
His wife contested the Will and applied to be appointed as the
Administrator on the basis that he died intestate, but because the
text ended with the words "my Will", and because of
changes to Queensland law in 2006 that now enables less formal
documents to be recognised as Wills by the courts – including
previously a DVD and a note on an iPhone – the Brisbane
Supreme Court upheld it.
