{"id":1278,"date":"2013-11-14T19:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T00:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spiegelsohmer.com\/2013\/11\/14\/so-what-did-my-late-uncle-really-mean\/"},"modified":"2016-12-22T11:21:20","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T16:21:20","slug":"so-what-did-my-late-uncle-really-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiegelryan.com\/en\/2013\/11\/14\/so-what-did-my-late-uncle-really-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"So What Did My Late Uncle Really Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You meet a client who tells you the following story:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cMy uncle Louis passed away. He was my father\u2019s brother. Never married, never had children. He left a notarial will and listed me and my three brothers as universal legatees. We were at this house, going through his things and we found the will.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lo and behold, in the margin, the names of my three brothers are erased and covered up, and each erasure&nbsp; is specifically initialed by my late uncle. I figure he meant I am supposed to be the sole heir, What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These facts deal with a number of common misconceptions regarding wills and how a will can be changed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is because Quebec law recognizes various forms of wills, in particular, notarial wills, holograph wills and wills made in the presence of witnesses. A notarial will is what it sounds like, a will drawn up, signed and witnessed before a notary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The original remains in the notary\u2019s records and the client gets an \u201cauthentic copy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A holograph will is entirely written and signed by the testator; it does not need any witness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A will made in the presence of witnesses can be typed out and signed by a testator, in front of two witnesses. Each page of the will is initialed by the testator and the witnesses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If a holograph will or a will made before witnesses, is erased, or torn or destroyed, this can entail a revocation, if this was done by the testator or on his express instructions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, a notarial will is a different legal creature. It cannot be tacitly revoked, amongst other reasons because the original resides in the notary\u2019s repertoire, the client only gets a copy, albeit an authentic copy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It might very well have been the case that Uncle Louis wanted to change his will. Unfortunately, erasing the names of some of the heirs on an authentic copy of a notarial will not be the equivalent of a revocation of a testamentary legacy, even though in some circumstances, (where you are dealing with a holograph will or a will made before witnesses), that might be good enough.<a title=\"\" href=\"\/NRPortbl\/SSDocs\/MCITROME\/2404050_1.docx#_ftn1\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div>\n<p>The facts discussed above are similar to the facts found in the recent Court of Appeal decision of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.canlii.org\/fr\/qc\/qcca\/doc\/2013\/2013qcca1848\/2013qcca1848.html\"><i>St.Aubin <\/i>v. <i>Prud\u2019homme<\/i> 2013 QCCA 1848<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"blandy@spiegelsohmer.com\">Barry Landy<\/a>&nbsp;is a senior litigation lawyer at Spiegel Sohmer who&nbsp;focuses his practice on commercial litigation and is also experienced in the area of media law.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You meet a client who tells you the following story: \u201cMy uncle Louis passed away. He was my father\u2019s brother. Never married, never had children. He left a notarial will and listed me and my three brothers as universal legatees. We were at this house, going through his things and we found the will. Lo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-litigation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>So What Did My Late Uncle Really Mean? - Spiegel Ryan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegelsohmer.com\/en\/2013\/11\/14\/so-what-did-my-late-uncle-really-mean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So What Did My Late Uncle Really Mean? - Spiegel Ryan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You meet a client who tells you the following story: \u201cMy uncle Louis passed away. 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