Estate of Eugene
Opinion
Opinion
Freeman, Freeman & Smiley, Stephen M. Lowe and Todd M. Lander for Claimant and Appellant.
No appearance for Petitioner and Respondent.
MIRIAM A. VOGEL, J.
In 1983, the Legislature eliminated the requirement that witnesses to the execution of a will had to sign the will in the testator's presence. The question in this case is whether the Legislature nevertheless meant to prohibit a postdeath attestation necessitated by a witness's concededly inadvertent failure to sign a will at the time it was executed. We conclude that, had the Legislature intended a temporal limit, it would have said so and that, at least on the facts of this case, a postdeath attestation is proper.
Cleopatra Eugene and Barbara Eugene, spinster sisters without issue or other heirs, retained George Hightower to prepare their mutual wills, which he did. On January 29, 1993, the sisters Eugene signed their wills in the presence of two witnesses, Mr. Hightower and Susan Johnson, and Ms. Johnson signed both wills as a witness. Mr. Hightower signed Barbara's will but inadvertently failed to sign Cleopatra's will, an omission that was not discovered until after Cleopatra's death.