WILLS - HOLOGRAPHIC REVOCATION - REFERENCE TO NONTESTAMENTARY ACT TO DETERMINE WILL TO WHICH REVOCATION REFERS

Authors

William H. Shipley, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Testator deposited his last will and testament with a trust company for safekeeping and received a receipt acknowledging the deposit. Several years later he wrote on the bottom of the receipt: "The Will and Testament above referred to I hereby declare void." The writing was signed and dated. On his death his widow alleged that he had died intestate and the probate court entered a decree recognizing the widow as sole distributee of the estate, valued at twelve million dollars. The legatees in the will instituted the present proceedings against the widow for a rule to show cause why she had not produced the will for probate. The widow answered that the will had been revoked. In reply plaintiffs pleaded that the will to which the revocation referred could be identified only if the receipt were incorporated into the revocation and that the receipt could not be incorporated by reference because it was not in the testator's handwriting. Held, that the will was revoked. Reference may be made to a nontestamentary act for the purpose of rendering certain the will to which the revocation refers. Hessmer v. Edenhorn, 196 La. 575, 199 So. 647 (1941).

Recommended Citation

William H. Shipley, WILLS - HOLOGRAPHIC REVOCATION - REFERENCE TO NONTESTAMENTARY ACT TO DETERMINE WILL TO WHICH REVOCATION REFERS, 40 Mich. L. Rev. 492 (1942).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol40/iss3/24