The High Court ruled that a 2010 codicil revived Philip Brennan’s 2006 Irish will, but limited that will’s effect to the Irish estate. The court said a New York will continued to govern the deceased’s New York bank account.
The judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Baker on 16 July 2015, addressed revival first, by agreement between the parties. The court did not determine whether the 2008 New York will had originally revoked the Irish will, or which country’s law governed that question.
Brennan made the Irish will in 2006. It named his niece, Mary K. Brennan, as sole executor and dealt with his dwelling, garage and lands in Castleisland, County Kerry, as well as money and the residue of his estate within the Republic of Ireland. In 2008, he made a New York will containing a clause revoking all prior wills and codicils. It named John Daly as executor and left most of his estate to him.
In 2010, Brennan made a codicil to the Irish will. It replaced a bequest concerning an EBS account with a bequest of money in a Bank of Ireland account in Castleisland to his niece, and said: “I hereby affirm all the other terms of my aforesaid last will and testament.” The court concluded that “my aforesaid last will” referred to the Irish will: the codicil was endorsed on it and replaced its fifth paragraph, while the New York will’s fifth clause appointed an executor.
Under section 87 of the Succession Act 1965, a revoked will can be revived by a duly executed codicil that shows an intention to revive it. Justice Baker held that “affirm” and “confirm” express the same kind of acknowledgment, and that the codicil’s express affirmation and replacement of a specific clause showed an intention to revive the Irish will. The court also accepted evidence about the change from the closed EBS accounts to the Bank of Ireland account as relevant to interpreting that alteration.
The court said it was unnecessary to prove that Brennan knew the Irish will had been revoked. It also held that simply writing or attaching a codicil to a will would not, by itself, establish revival.
The Irish will included a clause revoking previous wills, but its scope was confined to the Irish estate. The court held that it did not revoke the New York will in its entirety: that will continued to govern assets outside the Irish will, identified in the judgment as the New York bank account. The court noted that the New York estate had been fully administered.