Good Will hunting

Frank Crispin Esson v Robert Barrie Esson and 11 others [2009] EWHC 3045 (Ch) concerned the construction of codicil. Dorothy Clements (D) died in 2006, survived by three children from her first marriage and three stepchildren by her second marriage. Her second husband, Norman (N), predeceased her in 2005. D and N made mirror wills in 1996, so that on D’s death, her interest in the matrimonial home passed to her own children and absolute residue passed to her three children and three stepchildren in equal shares.

However, in 2002, D had inherited a share of her own mother’s estate, which she invested in a separate bank account. She then executed an undated home-made codicil. It stated that N “is in full agreement that should I predecease him, all monies in this account should be divided equally between my grandchildren…”.

If interpreted literally, the gift was conditional on D predeceasing N. As N had predeceased D, this meant the money fell