Estate of Johnson

This is an appeal taken from an order determining interests in an estate and directing the distribution of the property of the estate taken pursuant to Probate Code section 1240. At issue is the correctness of the trial court’s construing together two testamentary instruments admitted to probate as the last will of Henrietta M. Johnson and the court’s consequent determination that the appellants are not pretermitted heirs.

Statement of Facts

Respondents, Gerald K. Johnson and Forrest L. Johnson, are the sons of Henrietta May Johnson, the decedent in this case. Henrietta Johnson had a third child, Helen J. Fraser, who predeceased her. Appellants Bruce Fraser and Kenneth Fraser, the children of Helen J. Fraser, are the grandchildren of the decedent.

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles is no longer involved in this matter, the parties having stipulated to the bequest to the hospital.

Henrietta Johnson died on March 19, 1976, leaving two testamentary instruments and an estate of real and personal property valued in excess of $250,000.

On February 20, 1969, the decedent executed a typewritten will that had been prepared by an attorney, Mr. C. M. Linton. The will reads as…