Florida Court Rules Argentine Will Not Valid Under Florida Law

Elena Isleno, an Argentine citizen, created a valid will in New York which stated it only covered her property located in the US and named specific beneficiaries. Later, she would create a new will which revoked all prior testaments but the will itself was been dictated to an Argentine notary, in the presence of witnesses, but was never signed by anyone. As a result, a Florida court was faced with the question of whether the New York or Argentine will should be probated but was faced with the threshold question of if the Argentine will was valid since it appeared to be an invalid oral will under state law.

In Malliero v. Mori, Mori & Corallo, the Florida Court of Appeals ruled that the second will was not valid under Florida law since it was noncupative and thus did not fall into the exception that allows certain foreign wills to be valid even if not following Florida’s formalities. The court also rejected the contention that the Argentine will was valid as a notarial will because the transcribed will was never signed by the testator or witnesses. The court did note the difficulty in this case since keys terms such as “noncupative” and “notarial will” were not defined in the statute and called on the legislature to create definitions.

See Charles Rubin, Florida Court Provides a Lesson in Nuncupative and Notarial Wills, Rubin on Tax, September 30, 2015.