Will Does Not Require Exoneration of Jointly Held Property

The testator’s will included language directing payment of all “just debts.” In Manders v. King, 667 S.E.2d 59 (Ga. 2008), the court held that the will language was declaratory of the law and therefore did not require the estate to discharge a mortgage on real property that passed to the testator’s son as the surviving joint tenant and that the common law doctrine requiring exoneration did not apply because the property was not part of the probate estate.