A creditor's direction that a debt payable on demand be repaid on death does not embody testamentary intentions for the purposes of s 18A of the Wills Probate and Administration Act 1898 (NSW), because such a direction is immediately operative and contractual in nature, not revocable as a testamentary provision must be. A direction by a creditor that part of a debt be paid to a third party, communicated to both the debtor and the third party, effects a valid equitable assignment of that part of the debt without consideration, where the debt is incapable of legal assignment. The 'broad general rule' that a testator's duty to his widow includes ensuring adequate income applies even where the marriage was of relatively short duration (nine years) and there were no children of the marriage, provided the widow devoted herself to the deceased and gave up her career at his request.
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