Natural Aging of Ink and Ink Fading Are Different Physical and Chemical Processes: A Document Dating Case Report

In a probate matter, one of the key issues was whether a three-page Will, dated 13 August 1999 (the ‘1999 Will’), was produced and signed on or around the date shown on the document, or whether this three-page document or the first page of the document were produced and signed significantly later, for example, as late as September 2018 when the 1999 Will was lodged with the High Court (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) Probate Registry. The Plaintiff’s expert found as follows: (1) the signatures on page 1 of the 1999 Will were written within 2 years before their examination in July 2019; and (2) the signatures on page 1 of the Will were written in blue ink of one formulation and the signatures on page 2 of the Will were written in blue ink of a different formulation. Based on these findings, the Plaintiff’s expert opined that the 1999 Will ‘was not prepared in 1999 as indicated, but at multiple occasions more recently, [namely after] July of 2017.’ This author, retained as the Defendant’s expert, determined and testified at trial that: (1) the signatures on pages 1 and 2 of the 1999 Will were most probably written with the blue ballpoint ink of the same formulation; (2) there is evidence which indicates that all these signatures may have been written with the same ballpoint pen; (3) the changes in the composition (ratios) of the dye components of the blue ballpoint ink on page 1, as well as the changes in the hue and brightness of this ink (at the time of its examination, the ink’s color was pale violet–gray), are the results of a partial decomposition (N-demethylation) of certain dye components (triarylmethane dyes) of the ink caused by the exposition of this page to light; and (4) the toner of the printed entries on all the three pages of the 1999 Will corresponds to the conventional 8- to 10-μ black toner that was widely used in commercially available printers and copiers in the late 1990s, and it is unlikely that this toner was available in the 2010s. The Defendant’s expert’s ultimate conclusion was as follows:

The totality of the examination results obtained provided evidence that (1) does not support the Plaintiff’s proposition that this three-page document or the first page of the document were produced and signed not in 1999 but at a much later point in time, [namely after] July of 2017, and (2) supports the Defendant’s proposition that all the pages of the 1999 Will were produced and signed contemporaneously with each other and probably in 1999, as dated, not at a much later point in time – after July of 2017.