Courts are often required to consider the construction of the terms of a Will.
An interesting case arose out of the following:
a. Lajos purchased a lotto ticket;
b. Lajos was the first division winner of almost $2 million;
c. sadly, Lajos died the day after the draw.
Lajos left a Will which gave:
a. his house and “chattels that are in it” to his daughter; and
b. everything else to his three other children.
The lotto ticket was found in Lajos’ house.
Was the actual lotto ticket a ‘chattel’, which would mean the prizemoney would go to Lajos’ daughter, or was it part of the residue of his estate to go to his three other children?
This was a unique set of circumstances.
Obviously, you are not going to execute a new Will every time you buy a lotto ticket.
You might, however, want to be specific about the wording of your Will.
Broad gifts of “everything in the house” aren’t the way to go.
Following a whole heap of convoluted legal argument, the Court found the lotto ticket (and therefore Lajos’ share of the winnings) did not form part of the chattels in the house.