Where There's a Will There's a Way: Marley v Rawlings and Another
| Date | 01 January 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12109 |
| Published date | 01 January 2015 |
CASES
Where There’s a Will There’s a Way: Marley vRawlings
and Another
James Goodwin and Edward Granger*
In Marley vRawlings and another, a unanimous Supreme Court has widened the scope of judicial
power to rectify a will under section 20 of the Administration of Justice Act 1982. An intended
will that falls foul of formality requirements may now have such defects resolved by rectification,
and the meaning of ‘clerical error’ – one of the two possible bases for invoking the rectification
doctrine – has been expanded. The Court’s decision to resolve the issue by this method rather
than by recourse to the doctrine of construction may prove to have implications for the extended
scope of the latter. Moreover, the recent award of a third party costs order in this case is also likely
to have a significant impact on the manner in which similar disputes are conducted in the future.
INTRODUCTION
In Marley vRawlings and another,1the first probate case to reach the final appeal
court for over 50 years,2the Supreme Court has clarified the scope of the power
to rectify wills under section 20 of the Administration of Justice Act 1982 and,
in the process, has spelt out the nature of the relationship between this power and
the formality requirements necessary for validity. The result is likely to have
important repercussions in the context of testamentary dispositions. But the
judgment also raises some interesting points of principle which are likely to have
wider significance.
THE FACTS
In early May 1999, Alfred Thomas Rawlings and his wife, Maureen Catherine
Rawlings, retained a solicitor to settle their wills. Mr and Mrs Rawlings
instructed the solicitor to settle mirror wills, with each spouse leaving his or her
estate to the surviving spouse, who would also act as executor. If the other spouse
had already died, or survived the deceased spouse for less than a month, then the
entire estate was to be left to Terry Marley, who had lived with Mr and Mrs
Rawlings as a member of the family since his teens. Mr and Mrs Rawlings’ two
natural children, Terry and Michael Rawlings, were not mentioned in the
*Barristers, London. We would like to thank Jess Elliott for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
concerned the burden of proof necessary to establish the testator’s knowledge and approval of the
contents of a will in an action to revoke a grant of probate.
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© 2015 The Authors. The Modern Law Review © 2015 The Modern Law Review Limited. (2015) 78(1) MLR 140–163
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
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