Execution of appointment by will
7.—
(1) No appointment made by will, in exercise of any power, shall be valid, unless the will is executed in the manner required by this Act.
(2) Every will executed in the manner required by this Act shall, so far as respects the execution and attestation thereof, be a valid execution of a power of appointment by will, notwithstanding that it shall have been expressly required that a will made in exercise of that power should be executed with some additional or other form of execution or solemnity.
Publication of will not necessary
8. Every will executed in the manner required by this Act shall be valid without any other publication thereof.
Will not to be invalidated by reason of incompetency of
attesting witness
9. If any person who attests the execution of a will shall, at the time of the execution thereof or at any time afterwards, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution thereof, the will shall not on that account be invalid.
Gifts to attesting witness or to wife or husband of attesting
witness to be void
10.—
(1) If any person attests the execution of any will to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment of or affecting any real or personal estate, other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt, shall be thereby given or made, the devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment shall, so far only as concerns the person attesting the execution of the will, or the wife or husband of that person, or any person claiming under that person or wife or husband, be utterly null and void.
(2) The attesting witness referred to in subsection (1) shall be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of the will or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof, notwithstanding the devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment mentioned in the will.
(3) The attestation of a will by a person to whom or to whose spouse there is given or made any disposition as is described in subsection (1) shall be disregarded for the purposes of that subsection if the will is duly executed without his attestation and without that of any other such person.
(4) Subsection (3) shall apply to the will of any person dying after the passing of the Wills (Amendment) Act 1992, whether executed before or after the passing of that Act.
Creditor attesting a will charging estate with debts to be admitted a witness
11. In case by any will any real or personal estate shall be charged with any debt, and any creditor, or the wife or husband of any creditor, whose debt is so charged, shall attest the execution of the will, the creditor notwithstanding the charge shall be admitted a witness to prove the execution of the will or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.
Executor not incompetent to be witness
12. No person shall, on account of his being an executor of a will, be incompetent to be admitted a witness to prove the execution of the will or to prove the validity or invalidity thereof.
Will to be revoked by marriage except in certain cases
13.—
(1) Every will made by a man or woman shall be revoked by his or her marriage, except a will made in exercise of a power of appointment, when the real or personal estate thereby appointed would not in default of such appointment pass to his or her heir, executor or administrator or the person entitled under the Intestate Succession Act [Cap. 146].
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), where a will made on or after 29th August 1938 is expressed to be made in contemplation of a marriage, the will shall not be revoked by the solemnization of the marriage contemplated; and this subsection shall apply notwithstanding that the marriage contemplated may be the first, second or subsequent marriage of a person lawfully practising polygamy.
No will to be revoked by presumption from altered
circumstances
14. No will shall be revoked by any presumption of an intention on the ground of an alteration in circumstances.
Revocation of will or codicil
15. No will or codicil, or any part thereof, shall be revoked
otherwise than —
(a) as provided in section 13;
(b) by another will or codicil executed in the manner by this Act required;
(c) by some writing declaring an intention to revoke it, and executed in the manner in which a will is by this Act required to be executed; or
(d) by the burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the will by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his direction, with the intention of revoking it.
Effect of obliteration, interlineation or alteration
16.—
(1) No obliteration, interlineation or other alteration made in any will after the execution thereof shall be valid or have any effect except so far as the words or effect of the will before such alteration shall not be apparent, unless the alteration shall be executed in the like manner as by this Act is required for the execution of the will.
(2) A will referred to in subsection (1), with such alteration as part thereof, shall be deemed to be duly executed if the signature of the testator and the subscription of the witnesses be made in the margin or on some other part of the will opposite or near to the alteration or at the foot or end of or opposite to a memorandum referring to the alteration and written at the end or some other part of the will.
Revival of revoked will
17.—
(1) No will or codicil, or any part thereof, which shall be in any manner revoked, shall be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof, or by a codicil executed in the manner required by this Act and showing an intention to revive the will or codicil.
(2) When any will or codicil which shall be partly revoked, and afterwards wholly revoked, shall be revived, the revival shall not extend to so much thereof as shall have been revoked before the revocation of the whole thereof, unless an intention to the contrary be shown.
Subsequent conveyance or other acts not to prevent operation
of will
18. No conveyance or other act made or done subsequently to the execution of a will of or relating to any real or personal estate therein comprised, except an act by which the will shall be revoked as aforesaid, shall prevent the operation of the will with respect to the estate or interest in the real or personal estate as the testator shall have power to dispose of by will at the time of his death.
Will to be construed to speak from death of testator
19. Every will shall be construed with reference to the real estate and personal estate comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will.
Residuary devises to include estates comprised in lapsed and
void devises
20. Unless a contrary intention appears by the will, such real estate and interest therein as is comprised or intended to be comprised in any devise in the will contained, which fails or is void by reason of the death of the devisee in the lifetime of the testator or by reason of the
devise being contrary to law or otherwise incapable of taking effect, shall be included in the residuary devise (if any) contained in the will.
General gift of realty and of personality to include property over which testator has general power of appointment
21.—
(1) A general devise of the real estate of the testator, or of the real estate of the testator in any place or in the occupation of any person mentioned in his will, or otherwise described in a general manner, shall be construed to include any real estate, or any real estate to which that description shall extend, as the case may be, which he may have power to appoint in any manner he may think proper, and shall operate as an execution of that power, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will.
(2) A bequest of the personal estate of the testator, or any bequest of personal estate described in a general manner, shall be construed to include any personal estate, or any personal estate to which that description shall extend, as the case may be, which he may have power to appoint in any manner he may think proper, and shall operate as an execution of that power, unless a contrary intention shall appear by the will.
