Omnia Praesumuntur…
| Author | O. M. Stone |
| Date | 01 May 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1960.tb00605.x |
| Published date | 01 May 1960 |
MAY
1960
NOTES
OF
CASES
815
understanding and at the same time insist that the executive is,
in the last resort,
('
under the law." This, it is submitted, is the
best way to preserve the rule of law.
PETER
BRETT.
OMNIA
PRAESUMUNTUR
.
.
.
'(AT the foot
or
end thereof," which is where, according to the
Wills Act,
1887,'
a testator should sign his will, does not rival
certain other simple phrases2 as a cause of litigation. But
it
caused sufficient difficulty to require statutory amplification fifteen
years after enactment and still gives rise to litigation from time
to time. The reason
is
that this is one of the points at which
formal requirements impinge upon complete informality.
On
tbe
one hand, any testator in
England,
however ignorant
or
dim-witted
(short
of
actual insanity), may write
or
have others write for him-
without advice
if
he chooses-what he wishes to happen to his
property at his death.
On
the other hand, before these wishes
attain legal effect he must, amongst other things, conform to certain
rules about where and in whose presence he signs what he has
written
or
had written. Conflict at such a point is inevitable, and
in the last analysis
it
is probably the presumption in favour of
validity that resolves most doubts and saves most dispositions,
provided there is evidence that the testator attempted. to comply
with the required forms."
The possibility of differing views
on
where is
('
the foot
or
end
''
of a will may arise where the whole will is written
on
one side of a
single sheet of paper. Thus,
it
has been held that a signature
in
the left-hand margin opposite the beginning of the will was at the
foot
or
end of the will,5 where the paper had been turned sideways
after the writing reached the bottom of
it
in its original position.
So
also-perhaps the extreme of liberality-when the signature
was in a
box
which had been drawn two-thirds of the way down
the page before the words of the will had been written round it.'
But not where, there being
no
more room at the bottom, the
signature was written at the top
of
the page in the position in
which
it
had been written
0n.l
That many further complications are possible where the will
consists
of
more than one sheet of paper, even where
no
fraud is
1
8.
9:
.
. .
it shall be signed at the foot or end thereof
t17
the testator or
by
some other person in his presence and
by
his direction.
.
. .
2
Such
as
"
in the course
of
and arising out
of
the employment."
3
By
the Wills Amendment Act,
1852,
8.
1,
which amended the eimple words
with impressive verbosity, and
less
impressive effect.
A
As Lord Esher said in
Re
Harrison
(1885)
30
Ch.D.
at
p.
393
in another
connection:
'I
There is
one
rule
. . .
which to my mind
is
a
golden rule,
viz.,
that when a testator has executed
a
will in solemn
form
you must
aasume
he
did not intend
to
make
it
a
solemn
farcethat he did not intend
to die intestate when he
has
gone through the form
of
making
a
will."
Re Roberts
[1934]
P.
102
6
Re Hornby
[1946]
P.
171.
7
Re
Stalman
(1931) 145
L.T.
339; [1931]
W.N.
143.
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