A Secret Will, A Broken Promise: The Battle of the Unsigned Agreement

In the quiet aftermath of a death, families often discover more than grief. Sometimes, they find a secret. For a woman known only as PG in court papers, that secret was a willa document her husband wrote without her knowledge, disinheriting her after 25 years of marriage.

The couple, married in 1996, had signed a joint will in 2001, a blueprint for their shared life’s work. But when her husband passed away in 2021, that blueprint was torn up. Facing financial ruin, PG turned to the law, filing a claim against his estate. What followed was a painful family drama that has now hinged not on sentiment, but on the cold, precise mechanics of a contract.

The Deal That Never Was

To avoid a protracted legal war, PG and her stepson, MG, entered into settlement negotiations. According to PG, they reached a deal in March 2022. In exchange for dropping her claim, MG would pay her a R220,000 lump sum, plus monthly support for living expenses, petrol, and a domestic worker’s salary for five years. It was a lifeline.

But in court, MG denied any final agreement existed. Yes, they had talked. Yes, emails had flown back and forth. One of his emails read, “I also need to discuss a couple of issues regarding the agreement…” For him, this was proof talks were ongoing. He insisted any real deal needed to be formally written down and signed by both parties to be valid. When a draft agreement was presented, he refused to sign it, claiming it did not reflect their discussions.

The Judge’s Ledger: Words vs. Signatures

The case first went to the Humansdorp Regional Court, which ruled in the stepmother’s favour in April 2024. MG immediately appealed to the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda. Here, Acting Judge Thembelani Attwell Nkele presided over a case that had morphed from an inheritance feud into a contract law puzzle.

Judge Nkele’s ruling was definitive. Sifting through the evidence, including the emails and the draft agreement itselfwhich contained a clause stating it was only effective upon both signatureshe found a critical flaw. The parties had agreed to make an agreement in the future. They had not, in fact, finalized one.

“What they had in mind is an agreement to negotiate an agreement which never came into existence,” the judge stated. He noted PG’s background working at a bank made it implausible she would misunderstand the significance of a signature clause. Without her stepson’s signature on the dotted line, the promised payments were just thata promise, not a binding contract.

A Cautionary Tale for Fractured Families

The High Court’s decision to overturn the lower ruling and find in the stepson’s favour is a stark lesson. In the emotional turmoil following a death, especially one involving perceived betrayal like a secret will, the urge to secure a quick verbal solution is powerful. This case underscores the peril of that path.

For PG, the outcome is a devastating reversal. Her fight now circles back to square one: contesting the secret will itself. For families everywhere, the message from Makhanda is clear: in matters of money and inheritance, if it’s not written down and signed, it might as well not exist. The law, in the end, deals in ink, not intentions.

{Source: IOL}

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