Coincidence and the Construction of Wills
| Date | 01 July 1963 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1963.tb00719.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1963 |
THE
MODERN LAW REVIEW
Volume
26
July
1963
No.
4
COINCIDENCE
AND
THE
CONSTRUCTION
OF
WILLS
THE decision of the Court of Appeal in
Re Rowland
provoked
not only a dissenting judgment and some difference
of
opinion
among lawyers as to its correctness in law, but the less usual and
more stimulating result
of
over two weeks’ correspondence in
the columns of
The
Times,
in which
for
the most part laymen
expressed their contempt for the way in which lawyers-or at
any rate Chancery lawyers-construe wills.
A
note
on
this case
appeared in the January number of
The Modern Law Review,2
but it merits perhaps further consideration
on
account of the
controversy it provoked and the importance of the principles
involved.
It
is proposed to consider primarily the correctness of
the decision in law, and secondly and more briefly the desirability as
a
matter of public policy of the principles
on
which
it
rests.
It will be convenient first to recapitulate shortly the facts. The
testator, who was a doctor, by a will made
on
a printed form,
left all his estate to his wife and went
on
to provide:
“
in
the
event of the decease of the said Shirley Brownlie Rowland preced-
ing
or
coinciding with my own decease
I
give and bequeath all
my estate to Eric Arthur Ingram Rowland and Henry Rowland
Brink.’’ His wife, Shirley, made
a
corresponding will but with
different alternative legatees. The wills were made shortly before
the testator left with
his
wife to take up an appointment in the
South Pacific health service which involved frequent travel by
small boats. About two years later the testator and his wife
were passengers
on
board the R.C.S.
Melanesian,
a
vessel of
130
tons, which disappeared while
on
a
voyage between the British
Solomon Islands.
A
Commission of Inquiry concluded that the
ship probably sank suddenly, but found no explanation why.
The only body recovered had died not from drowning but probably
1
[1963]
Ch.
1.
2
(1963)
26
M.L.R.
87.
VOL.
26
858
13
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