Durban - A four-year fight between the neighbour of an Umhlanga widow and her Germany-based relatives over her will has come to an end with a judge ruling that a note in a red envelope found in her study after she died, leaving the bulk of her estate to her neighbour, did not replace an earlier one signed with her attorney.
“The note was framed along the lines of her wishes for the time being, but that was dependent upon how much remained of her lifetime,” Judge Anton van Zyl said in his judgment last week.
The application before him was brought by Susan van Straaten, a resident of Rolling Hills Country Club, who was seeking an order that the note be declared the last will and testament of her friend of 15 years, Helene Slack, who died of cancer on June 26, 2011.
In the note, discovered by Van Straaten, she said: “Susan, please look after my affairs while I’m not able to anymore”.
She directed Van Straaten to give her attorney, Robert White, the red envelope. In that was a letter written by Slack which began: “Dear Sue, thank you for making my last days so incredibly comfortable”.
She then went on to address her attorney, saying: “I don’t know what the future brings but Susan van Straaten is a long-time friend of mine. I definitely want her to have my unit at Rolling Hills, my shares at Investec, furniture, car and jewellery and investments to be hers after my death.”
She said her car and money in Germany should stay there and be divided between her nieces and nephews, concluding: “I hope for the while being it’s the right thing of mine to let you know. Depends now how long I shall be here in this wonderful world.” The document was dated June 17, 2011.
In May 2011, Slack had confided she had terminal cancer and had asked to come and stay with Van Straaten because she had no children and her relatives were in Germany.
She said Slack stayed with her until June 21 when, at her own request, she went home and died five days later. She said Slack had wanted her to inherit as she had looked after her and she was estranged from her family.
Her nieces and nephews - who were to inherit her estate in terms of a will and codicil she signed with her attorney in 2008 and 2009 - questioned the authenticity of the document querying whether their aunt was the author and, if so, whether she had been mentally competent to make a new will so close to her death.
Judge van Zyl said a handwriting expert had put paid to doubts that Slack had written the note and there was no evidence to suggest she had not been mentally capable. However, the allegations that she had been estranged from her family were contradicted by letters she had written to them.
The judge said Slack had been a secretary and was “particular and precise in managing her affairs”. When she compiled and signed the will with her attorney, she was aware of the formalities required and when she wrote the 2011 document, she would also have been aware of these.
“Objectively she had no reason to change her long-standing nomination of her nieces and nephews as her heirs. It is clear she knew her condition was terminal. But it is not clear when she believed her death would ensue. The content of the letter … suggests she envisaged a gradual decline into a state where she would no longer be able to attend to her own affairs and then wished to rely on Van Straaten.
“If she wished to change or replace her will, she would presumably have given instructions to her attorney. Instead, the note … appeared to focus on her future intentions, as opposed to executing there and then a will in final and effective form,” he said, dismissing the application and ordering the estate to pay the costs.
The Mercury