An unsigned amended draft plus transcripts of audio recordings made at
the hospital bedside of former Northern Maori MP Dr Bruce Gregory were used by
the High Court to construct a valid will leaving a Kaitaia residence to his
long-term partner Gabriele Pfaender and an interest in his mother’s ancestral
land to a whanau trust for the benefit of all his parents’ descendants.
Dr Gregory
died in 2015 aged 78. The only valid
will then in existence was dated December 1970.
This will was signed prior to the dissolution of a prior marriage. He subsequently lived in a de facto relationship
with Ms Pfaender for more than thirteen years.
The High Court was told Dr Gregory had made attempts during his final
days in Kaitaia hospital to ‘get his house in order’. A lawyer was called and a new will drafted
according to his instructions. In
addition, there were several bedside meetings with whanau explaining what he
wanted to see done with his property and why.
An audio of these meetings was recorded on mobile phones. Dr Gregory died before all his instructions
could be assembled into one document and signed as his new will.
Historically,
the Wills Act provided strict rules for inheritance. The dead cannot speak from the grave. Strict formalities were required for a valid
will: being in writing, signed and witnessed by two others. Now, the Wills Act focuses on substance and
intention, not form. Where an intention
is clear, it is not defeated by defects in form.
Justice
Toogood ruled the draft unsigned will plus handwritten amendments combined with
verified transcripts of the bedside meetings together amounted to ‘documents’
forming a valid will.
re Estate of Gregory – High Court (16.02.18)
18.039