HIS CHAPTER 21. An Act respecting Wills. (Assented to April 2, 1927.) [IS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Alberta, enacts as follows: SHORT TITLE 1. This Act may be cited as "The Wills Act." PART I INTERPRETATION 2. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires Short title Interpretation making (a) "Made" and "making" shall include execution or Made or signature, together with such other formalities, if any, as the law requires; (b) "Personal property" shall include leasehold estates Personal and other chattels real, and also moneys, shares of property Government and other funds, securities for money (not being real property), debts, choses in action, rights, credits, goods and all other property which by law devolves upon the executor or administrator (not being real property) and any share or interest therein; (c) "Real property" shall include messuages, lands, Real property (d) "Will" shall include a testament, a codicil, an ap- Will be devised 3. Every person may devise, bequeath or dispose of by What may will made in any of the forms permitted by this Act, all real and personal property of a nature which was devisable, bequeathable or disposable under the law existing prior to the passing of this Act. 4. Except as hereinafter otherwise provided, no will made Infants by any infant shall be valid. cannot make wills Permitted forms Soldiers' and sailors' wills Actual service Validity of will made by infant Signature to will PERMITTED FORMS 5. No will shall be valid unless it is made in one of the forms hereafter in this section permitted, that is to say, unless (a) it is in writing and executed in manner hereinafter mentioned, that is to say: (i) It shall be signed at the end or foot thereof by the testator or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; and (ii) Such signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time; and (iii) Such witnesses shall attest and shall subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, but no form of attestation shall be necessary; or (b) it is a holograph will, wholly in the handwriting of the testator and signed by him, whether made or acknowledged in the presence of any witness or not; or (c) it is the will of a member of the naval, military, air or marine forces made in accordance with the provisions of section 6. 6. (1) The will of a member of the naval, military, air or marine forces when in actual service, or of any mariner or seaman when at sea or in course of a voyage, may be made by a writing signed by him, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction, without any further formality or any requirement as to the presence of or attestation or signature by any witness. (2) Such member of naval, military, air or marine forces shall be deemed to be in actual service after he has taken some step under the orders of a superior officer in view of and preparatory to joining the forces engaged in hostilities. (3) The fact that such member of naval, military, air or marine forces, or such mariner or seaman, is an infant, at the time he makes his will, shall not invalidate the same. 7. (1) Every will shall, so far only as regards the position of the signature of the testator or the person signing for him as aforesaid, be deemed to be valid, if the signature is so placed at or after or following or under or beside or opposite to the end of the will that it is apparent on the face of the will that the testator intended to give effect by such signature to the writing signed as his will. (2) No such will shall be affected by the circumstance(a) that the signature does not follow or is not immediately after the foot or end of the will; or (b) that a blank space intervenes between the conclud- (d) that the signature is on a side or page or other (e) that there appears to be sufficient space on or at the bottom of the preceding side or page or other portion of the same paper on which the will is written to contain the signature. (3) The enumeration of the above circumstances shall not restrict the generality of subsection (1) of this section, but no signature under this Act shall be operative to give effect to any disposition or direction which is underneath or which follows it, nor shall it give effect to any disposition or direction inserted after the signature was made. by will 8.-(1) No appointment made by will in exercise of any Appointment power shall be valid unless the same is made in a form permitted by this Part. (2) Every will made in a form permitted by this Part, shall, so far as respects the formalities thereof, be a valid execution of a power of appointment by will, notwithstanding that it has been expressly required that a will in exercise of such power shall be made with some additional or other formality or formalities. 9. Every will made in a form permitted by this Part shall Due execution be valid without any further publication thereof. is sufficient publication WITNESSES by incompe 10. If any person who attests the execution of a will is Attestation at the time of the execution thereof or becomes at any time tent person afterwards incompetent as a witness to prove the execution thereof, such will shall not on that account be invalid. devise to or husband 11. If any person attests the execution of a will to whom Effect of or to whose then wife or husband any beneficial devise, witness, or legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment of or affecting witness' wife any real or personal property (other than and except charges and directions for the payment of any debt or debts) is thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment shall so far only as concerns the person attesting the execution of such will or such wife or husband Effect of attestation by creditor or creditor's wife or husband Executor may be a witness Marriage to revoke will except in certain cases Presumption of alteration in circumstances not to revoke will How revocation is effected Effect of obliteration, etc. or any person claiming under such wife or husband, be null and void, and the person so attesting shall be competent as a witness to prove the execution of the will or the validity or invalidity thereof: Provided that where the will is sufficiently attested without the attestation of any such person or no attestation is necessary, such devise, legacy, gift or appointment shall not be null and void. 12. If by a will any real or personal property is charged with a debt or debts and any creditor or the wife or husband of any creditor whose debt is so charged, attests the execution of the will, the creditor, notwithstanding such charge, shall be competent as a witness to prove the execution of the will or the validity or invalidity thereof. 13. No person shall on account of his being an executor of a will be incompetent as a witness to prove the execution of the will, or the validity or invalidity thereof. REVOCATION AND ALTERATION 14. Every will shall be revoked by the marriage of the testator, except (a) where it is declared in the will that the same is made in contemplation of such marriage; or (b) where the will is made in exercise of a power of appointment and the real or personal property thereby appointed would not in default of such appointment pass to the heir, executor or administrator of the testator or to the persons entitled to the estate of the testator in case he died intestate. 15. No will shall be revoked by any presumption of an intention to revoke the same on the ground of an alteration in circumstances. 16. No will or any part thereof shall be revoked otherwise than as aforesaid, or (a) by another will made in a form permitted by this Part; or (b) by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the same and made in a form in which a will is by this Part permitted to be made; or (c) by burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the same by the testator or by some person in his presence and by his direction with the intention of revoking the same. 17. No obliteration, interlineation, cancellation by drawinterlineation, ing lines across the will or any part thereof or other alteration made in any will after the making thereof shall be |