Ontario Reports Volume 42 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... insurance licy on the life of M. were his father, mother, and a brother. M. die leaving a will executed when he was on active service abroad as a soldier. This will was framed by filling up the blanks in a printed form of a soldier's will. The directions for filling in the blanks and for execution and attestation were in the body of the document, not in the margin. The will as drawn up and executed contained this clause: My personal estate I bequeath to my wife (naming her); and beneath the place for the signature, where M. had affixed his signature, and above the llestimonium clause, were the printed words: N.B. Personal estate includes insurance policy, in fact every-thing except real estate: --Held, that, whether or not this document operated as a will making a valid disposition of the insurance money, it was a declaration under sub-see. (5) of sec. 171 of the Ontario Insurance Act, sufiieient to effect a valid chan e in the beneficiary in favour of the wife, one of the preferred class, substituting her for the original beneficiaries. Semble, that although the nota bene clause was not part of the will, because not intended to be so, it was not to be ignored altogether--it should be taken as explanatory of what was included in the term personal estate; and the document might be regarded as a testamentary document supporting the claim of the wife to the insurance money. Sections 2, 12(2), and 30 of the Wills Act considered. Semble, also, that, if the nota bene clause should be deemed to have been intended to be part of the will, it might be treated as an intcrlineation, self-evidently made before the execution of the will and above the testimonium clause, and so supporting the...