Estate Of Norton

410 S.E.2d 484 (1991)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

Lawrence Norton died on 15 January 1987. Teab Norton (P) sought to be probate a document consisting of a legal cover sheet and eight sheets of paper. The first page of the document following the legal cover is entitled 'Last Will and Testament of Lawrence Norton.' It then states that Lawrence revoked all wills and codicils heretofore made by me, and do hereby make, publish, and declare this my last will and testament in manner and form as follows . . . .The successive paragraphs direct the payment of testator's debts, make certain monetary bequests, and devise specified real properties. The dispositions conclude at the bottom of the sixth page, in mid-sentence of a metes and bounds description of a real property devise. These six pages are stapled to the flap of the legal cover sheet. There are no signatures of any witnesses or a notary public, nor does a date appear, but in the lower right-hand side of each of the six pages is the signature of the testator. The seventh page of the document is entitled 'Codicil to Last Will and Testament of Lawrence Norton.' The decedent had Ms. Blanche Blackwelder, now deceased, type the two-page document entitled 'Codicil to the Last Will and Testament of Lawrence Norton.' That same day, Ms. Blackwelder and a co-worker witnessed the notary public guiding the decedent's hand to make his mark on the document. Decedent had suffered a stroke and needed assistance. Decedent's granddaughter was asked to 'staple the two documents together. She complied with the request and testified that the document at issue here was the same as the one she stapled together under decedent's direction. A jury trial was held. It found the codicil was properly executed and that the six-page document was properly incorporated by reference into the codicil. The trial court then entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict because the six-page document was not incorporated by reference into the codicil. The court of appeals affirmed, and P appealed again.