CASE: The Public Trustee of Queensland v The Public Trustee of Queensland & Ors [2014] QSC 47

WARNING: Disturbing content of suicide and death.

Francis Ward, who went by the name Frank, died in June 2009 as a result of a drug overdose. He left an estate worth about $140,000.

Two years before his death, Frank had made a homemade Will which appointed his friend Merin Nielsen as his executor and left his estate to Merin.

In 2012, Merin was convicted of having assisted Frank to commit suicide. It was Merin who travelled to Mexico to procure the drugs that resulted in Frank's death.

Merin sought leniency on the basis that Frank had a number of serious medical conditions and had an intense fear of becoming disabled.

Two significant questions for the Court were:

1. Was Frank's medical condition terminal or debilitating?

2. Were Merin's actions influenced by the inheritance he would receive on Frank's death?