The Court held that Mrs Brown owed a moral duty to both adult sons who had worked on the family farm without wages and who had been dissuaded from challenging their father's will by promises of future testamentary provision. However, only Gerard's claim succeeded because Thomas failed to adduce evidence of need at the date of Mrs Brown's death in 2014, his intervening bankruptcy between 2021 and 2025 meaning it could not be assumed he was in circumstances of need seven years earlier. The Court confirmed that proof of detrimental reliance is not a precondition for testamentary promises to be relevant under s 91(4) of the Act, but that establishing need at the date of death remains an essential threshold requirement that cannot be satisfied by evidence of need at trial alone. Gerard was awarded a pecuniary legacy of $185,714 from the proceeds of sale of Thompsons, representing a one-seventh share.
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