[2025] UKPC 26
Privy Council Appeal No 0079 of 2023
JUDGMENT
Gregory Pascall (Respondent)
v
Aneisa Graham (Appellant) (Trinidad and Tobago)
From the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
before
Lord Briggs
Lord Leggatt
Lord Richards
JUDGMENT GIVEN ON
19 June 2025
Heard on 22 May 2025
Keston McQuilkin
Wayne Smart
(Instructed by Sheridans Solicitors LLP (London))
Respondent
Margaret Rose
Dana-Marie Smith
(Instructed by LEX Caribbean (Trinidad))
(i) It is for the person seeking probate to prove that the testator knew and approved the contents of his will when he made it.
(ii) But knowledge and approval is generally presumed where the will has been duly executed by a person with testamentary capacity.
(iii) That presumption is greatly strengthened when it is proved that the will was read to, or by, the testator before it was executed.
(iv) The presumption of due execution may be rebutted by matters which excite the vigilance or suspicion of the court as to whether there really was knowledge and approval. Then the applicant for probate will have the burden of removing those suspicions.
(v) That burden may be large or small, on a sliding scale. The suspicion may be slight and easily dispelled, or so grave that only the strongest evidence may dispel it, or anything in between.
(vi) There is no complete or fixed category of matters which may give rise to suspicion, but they may include the preparation of the will by a person taking a benefit under it, the absence of independent advice and situations where the dispositions of the will conflict with the testator's known affections.