Michael Tringham uncovers a world of revocation, rectification & an opt-out
A £7m dispute in the last weeks of 2009 has confirmed that the dictum “a will is revoked by marriage” also extends to civil unions.
Australian rock music executive Peter Ikin, 62, died suddenly of natural causes in November 2008—only a month after entering into a civil union at Chelsea Town Hall with Frenchman Alex Despallieres. His civil partner produced the photocopy of an alleged will made in August 2008 that named him as the main beneficiary, and was granted probate in February 2009.
But Peter Ikin had previously made a will in 2002. So in March 2009 lawyers for the executors of the earlier will lodged a High Court claim, alleging that the 2008 version was “a forgery”. They also disputed that the original of the “purported will” ever existed—rejecting Mr Despallieres’ claim that it had been stolen in a burglary of the couple’s £2m Chelsea flat.
However those arguments were overtaken by a High Court ruling that the 2008 and 2002 wills were both revoked by the subsequent civil partnership.
