Re Estate George Dyer (Deceased)

• Jurisdiction: Belize
• Court: Supreme Court (Belize)
• Judge: Malone, C.J.
• Judgment Date: 30 March 1977
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 125 of 1976
• Date: 30 March 1977

Supreme Court

Malone, C.J.

Civil Action No. 125 of 1976

Re: Estate George Dyer (deceased)

Before the Hon, D.E.G. Malone, Chief Justice

Will - Probate law and practice

Facts: Applicant sought leave to prove lost will of deceased person by means of a copy — Evidence before court to show that will was not lost — History of probate law and practice in Belize reviewed

Held: Application dismissed.

1 This is an application by way of motion for leave to prove the lost will of the late George Dyer by means of a copy.

2 The copy in question - of which a certified copy has been produced - is dated the 27th day of November, 1919, and is at folio 663 of Wills Book No. 3. Also produced are certified copies of two affidavits which appear at the same folio of that book. The one is an affidavit dated the 22nd day of April, 1931, sworn to by one Herbert Croft. The other is an affidavit dated the 23rd April, 1931, sworn to by one H. Towrie Price. On a reading of the two affidavits, it appears that the deponents regard the document put forward by the applicant as a true copy of the will of George Dyer as in fact the original of that will. Thus in his affidavit Mr. Croft swears that it “purports to be the last will” of George Dyer who died on the 27th March, 1931, whilst in his affidavit Mr. H. Towrie Price describes himself as a subscribing witness to the last will and testament “within written” of George Dyer. On the face of the evidence as produced before me therefore, the original of George Dyer's will is not missing and that would seem to me to dispose of this application.

3 The application, however, has brought to my attention an aspect of the former law and practice of which I confess to have been ignorant until it was explained to me by the Registrar, for whose assistance in this matter I am most deeply grateful. It will, I think, be of help in this matter to recite the history as it will explain why it was that the documents of which I have made mention were found at folio 663 of Wills Book No. 3.

4 Until the enactment of the Land Transfer Act, 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c. 65) the jurisdiction to grant probate depended upon the existence within the jurisdiction of personal property of the deceased (see Theobald on “Wills” 13th Ed. [271] at p. 95). That Act was of course an Act of England but by virtue of the Imperial Laws (Extension) Ordinance, Chapter 16, the provisions of that Act be came the law of Belize....