In a a recent Superior Court decision, Mercier Robinson et McCollum, examined a dispute over two wills signed by the same testator—one executed in Quebec in 2013, and a later one signed in the United States in 2015. The central legal issue was whether the 2015 will revoked the earlier 2013 Quebec will, and whether its provisions were sufficiently clear to guide the liquidation of the estate. Justice Samson anchored his analysis in article 763 of the Civil Code of Québec, which provides that the revocation of a prior will may be either express or tacit.
The 2015 American will contained a general revocation clause stating: “hereby revoking all Wills and Codicils at any time heretofore made by me.”
However, the judge emphasized that this general clause must be interpreted in light of the entire document and the testator’s intent. To guide this interpretation, the judgment relied on three key sources:
