WILLS-INTERPRETATION OF WILLS STATUTE REQUIRING WITNESS TO SIGN "IN THE PRESENCE OF" THE TESTATOR

Authors

Allen C. Holmes, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Decedent died leaving a purported will dated October 30, 1930, by the terms of which all her property, real and personal, was devised to her daughter, the appellant herein. The decedent's husband was made executor. The document was perfectly regular upon its face. It was witnessed by two persons and the attestation clause recited "that we [the subscribing witnesses] were present and saw Susie Raby Alexander [the deceased] sign the above instrument." When the will was offered for probate one of the witnesses was dead. The one who did testify stated that the will had been signed by the decedent when he first saw it, but that the decedent had acknowledged to him that she had signed it and that it was her will. Held, the will was not entitled to probate and the decedent's property passes by intestacy. In re Alexander's Estate, Engberg v. Alexander, (Utah 1943) 139 P. (2d) 432.

Recommended Citation

Allen C. Holmes, WILLS-INTERPRETATION OF WILLS STATUTE REQUIRING WITNESS TO SIGN "IN THE PRESENCE OF" THE TESTATOR, 42 Mich. L. Rev. 940 (1944).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol42/iss5/15