Case Law Update: Wills
The testator executed a formal attested will leaving the bulk of his estate to his parents. He subsequently made a holographic codicil giving a small portion of his estate to a friend. After his mother’s death, the testator wrote a letter to the friend mentioned in the codicil which purported to give his entire estate to the friend and expressly disinherited his brother and daughter. The friend predeceased the testator. When the testator died, he was survived by his daughter and two half-sisters.
In In re Estate of Melton, No. 55634 (Nev. Feb. 16, 2012), the Nevada Supreme Court, in a comprehensive opinion, affirmed the lower court judgment of escheat, holding that the letter was a valid holographic will that revoked the formal will by inconsistency and completely disinherited testator’s brother and daughter because state law had overturned the common law prohibition of negative wills. In addition, the court held that the doctrine of dependent relative revocation, although part of the law of Nevada, did not apply in this case to undo the revocation of the formal will.
Special thanks to William P. LaPiana (Rita and Joseph Solomon Professor of Wills, Trusts,and Estates, New York Law School) and Adam J. Hirsch (William and Catherine VanDercreek Professor of Law, Florida State University College of Law) for bringing this case to my attention.