Estate of MacLeod

Raymond G. Kolts, Lester, Pitzer & Davis, Charles P. Lester, Morris, Polich & Purdy and Robert S. Wolfe for Contestant and Appellant.

Wagner & Scuderi and Jerome M. Wagner for Petitioners and Respondents.

OPINION

BENKE, J.

This is an appeal from an order submitting to probate a holographic instrument found by the trial court to be the will of Margaret Horwitz MacLeod (Margaret). (See appen. A for a photocopy of the will attached to this opinion.) The will was contested by Margaret's stepson David Horwitz (David) on the basis (1) it was not signed with the intent to authenticate the document as a will, (2) it was executed without testamentary intent and (3) it was not dated as required by the law applicable to the document. The trial court rejected these claims and admitted the will to probate.

Margaret was married to the senior David Horwitz (Horwitz) in 1956. Margaret had no children; Horwitz had one son, David. Their marriage produced no offspring. Horwitz died in 1959, leaving two-thirds of his estate to Margaret and one-third to David. Margaret did not remarry. She purchased a small farm in New Brunswick, Canada and moved to the farm in the late 1960's. In 1976 Margaret…