(1) No unprivileged will or codicil, nor any part thereof, which has been revoked in any manner, shall be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof, or by a codicil executed in manner hereinbefore required, and showing an intention to revive the same.
(2) When any will or codicil, which has been partly revoked and afterwards wholly revoked, is revived, such revival shall not extend to so much thereof as has been revoked before the revocation of the whole thereof, unless an intention to the contrary is shown by the will or codicil.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 73
Section 73 governs the revival of revoked wills, enacting that a revoked unprivileged will or codicil can only be revived by re-execution or by a duly executed codicil showing an intention to revive it.
Section 73 emphatically rejects this doctrine of automatic revival.
Under this section, no unprivileged will or codicil which has been in any manner revoked can be revived otherwise than by: (1) the re-execution thereof with the full formalities of Section 63; or (2) by a codicil executed in the manner hereinbefore required, and showing an unequivocal intention to revive the same. Furthermore, when a will that was partly revoked and later wholly revoked is revived, the revival does not extend to the partly revoked portions unless an express intention to revive them is proved.
Section 73 catches many lay testators in a fatal trap. A testator executes Will A, then executes Will B revoking Will A. Later, regretting Will B, the testator tears up Will B, assuming Will A is restored. Under Section 73, Will A remains dead and revoked; the destruction of Will B merely results in total intestacy! To restore Will A, the testator must formally re-execute Will A or execute a codicil expressly reviving it.