RE: BIRD, DECEASED [1970] E.A. 289 -TESTATE SUCCESSION

This is a case on TESTATE SUCCESSION [WILLS] in Tanzania, East Africa.

RE: BIRD DECEASED [1970] E.A. 289, PLATT, J. (this is a case note)

The testator left all his property to his "wife Margaret Bird." The Will also provided for the devolution of the estate if the wife did not survive the testator. The testator divorced his wife. Later she remarried and became known as Margaret Fox. The testator had made one alternation in the Will due to the death of his mother but the clause bequething all his property to "my wife Magaret Bird" was not altered. Margaret Fox applied for the probate of the Will and for dispensation with verification (dispense with the legal requirement of verifying that she really was Margaret).

HELD:
1. Divorce does not ipso facto revoke a Will.
2. As the applicant was the person referred to in the Will as Margret Bird she was entitled to the testator's property.