The following case is short, instructive, and entertaining. A man has died without forced heirs and left two wills: the first one is dated 30 January 2012, the second one is dated 24 February 2013. According to the first one, he wished to give his estate to Mr V, whereas the second will designates the daughter of his wife as sole legatee.1 The daughter claimed that the testaments were incompatible and that the deceased had intended to revoke his first testament by writing the second one. One could also say that the second testament give anything that is left after the first gift to the daughter. Determining the intention can be difficult.2 It is worth checking the wording before considering the interpretation.
The interpretation of a testament is left to lower courts in France. However, one can claim that the appeal judges have distorted the testament. The Cour de cassation that is the supreme court that deals with civil, commercial, and criminal matters had therefore to decide whether the Court of Appeal had distorted the second testament.
The supreme court noted that the appeal judges had read that the testament stated that the deceased wished to give all of his estate to the daughter of his deceased wife. They interpreted this short word as meaning "everything including any past gift". This creative interpretation is compelling. There is however only one issue with it: the word "all" is not written in the testament. The appeal judges have thus distorted the testament by adding the word all. The case is quashed.
In brief, will distortion is not a highly sophisticated technique.
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C. Cass., Civ. I, 13 January 2021, 19-16392. ↩
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See Intention, natural obligations and resulting trusts; The distinction between disability and incapacity. ↩