Case Name: SUCCESSION OF Lillie Beatrice MOTT
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1998-07-08
Citations: 715 So. 2d 1258
Docket Number: No. 97-1419
Parties: SUCCESSION OF Lillie Beatrice MOTT.
Judges: Before THIBODEAUX, COOKS, WOODARD, DECUIR and AMY, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 715
Pages: 1258–1261

Head Matter:
SUCCESSION OF Lillie Beatrice MOTT.
No. 97-1419.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
July 8, 1998.
Charles A. “Sam” Jones, III, DeRidder, for Leona Arehield Hodges.
Harold Dewey Register, Jr., Lafayette, for Succession of Lillie Beatrice Mott.
Before THIBODEAUX, COOKS, WOODARD, DECUIR and AMY, JJ.

Opinion:
liAMY, Judge.
Appellant, Leona Hodges, appeals the trial court's finding that the purported olographic will was not a valid testament as it lacked testamentary intention to convey ownership upon her death. We reverse.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On December 11,1987, the decedent, Lillie Beatrice Mott, penned a document entitled "Last Will and Testament of Lillie Beatrice Mott-Widowed." This handwritten document was signed and dated. The decedent died on July 2, 1994. On October 11, 1994, Hodges filed a petition in district court to be placed in possession of the decedent's estate. The following day, the trial court notified Hodges that the requested judgment of possession was denied noting that "[t]he will has apparently never been probated...." The trial court advised Hodges that she must produce the original will for probate in accordance with the law prior to seeking a judgment of possession.
Accordingly, Hodges filed a petition for probate of the purported olographic will of the decedent on December 19, 1994. In her petition, Hodges requested that the purported olographic will be admitted to probate and ordered executed and that 12she be appointed as testamentary executrix for the estate of Lillie Beatrice Mott. On July 7, 1997, the trial court signed an order which effectively denied Hodges' request for probate. The substance of the order was achieved by the modification of a previously submitted order by Hodges' attorney, on which the trial court eliminated from the document all language that the document was a valid will. Instead, the trial court allowed the document filed in the record as "an authentic writing of the testator" rather than a will, finding that the document "eontain[ed] no testamentary dispositions . "
Hodges appeals, assigning the following trial court errors: (1) the trial court erred in finding the document was "only a 'writing , of the testator' and refusing to accept the same as the Last Will and Testament of the Decedent[;]" (2) the trial court erred in concluding that no testamentary dispositions were contained in the handwritten document; and, (3) the trial court erred in refusing to probate the decedent's olographic will and ordering the will "filed and executed in accordance with the laws of testate succession of the State of Louisiana."
MERITS
The fundamental issue before this court is whether the handwritten document signed and dated by the decedent is a valid olo-graphic will. The trial court found the document lacked the requisite testamentary dispositions and, thus, could not be filed as a will. Hodges disagrees, asserting that "[i]t is clear from the olographic testament of the Decedent that she meant to place . Hodges[] in possession of her entire estate." (Emphasis omitted).
|3The purported olographic will, which was written, sighed and dated by the decedent, as attested to in affidavits for probate of olographic will, read:
Last Will and Testament of
Lillie Beatrice Mott-Widowed
I Lillie Beatrice Mott, born Lawrence, a resident of Parish Beauregard, State of Louisiana, being of sound and disposing mind and knowing that life is precarious, wish to make proper disposition of my property in case of my death, and declare this to be my last will and testament:
I declare that costs of my last illness, furnal [sic] expenses, and administration expenses of my estate and all of my just debts, excepting mortgage notes secured by mortgages upon real estate, be paid as soon after my death as practical;
I hearby [sic] appoint my God Daughter, Leona R. Hodges, born, Archield, whose address is 4549 Merrill Ave., Oakland Ca. 94619 as executrix of this my last will and testament, with seizin of my entire estate and without any bond or security whatsoever and without any inventory of my estate. This includes community or separate [sic] movable or immovable, real or personal whatsoever may exist at the time of my death, and wherever located.
I further declare that of the marriage between myself and my deceased husband, Marshall D. Mott there were no children born.
Mrs. Lillie B. Mott
12-11-1987
' The law and jurisprudence governing whether a document constitutes a valid olo-graphic will are clear. The statutory requirements of an olographic will are that the document must be entirely written, signed and dated by the hand of the testator. La. Civ.Code art. 1588. The only additional requirement is the document itself must evidence testamentary intent for there to be a-valid testament. Succession of Shows, 158 So.2d 293 (La.App. 1 Cir.1963), aff'd, 246 La. 652, 166 So.2d 261 (1964). The Louisiana |4 Supreme Court, in Succession of Fertel, 208 La. 614, 23 So.2d 234 (1945), noted that, when a will is executed, the natural and reasonable presumption is that the testatrix intended to dispose of her entire estate. And, when the will executed is olographic, written without aid of counsel, a court is not' bound to the strict adherence to technical or legal definitions of language used, but instead is called to obey "the clear intention [of the testatrix] however informally conveyed." Id. at 238.
In the present case, the decedent wrote a document entitled "Last Will and Testament" with the stated purpose "to make proper disposition of [her] property in case of [her] death[.]" In finding the document lacked testamentary dispositions, the trial court apparently placed great emphasis on the meaning of the legal term "seizin." While it is clear to legal scholars that "seizin" does not equate to ownership but, instead, affects only the taking of possession of the estate, the decedent is not held to the technical meaning of a purely legal term. To do so would be to contravene the natural presumption that, when a will is executed, the testatrix intends to dispose of her property upon her death. Accordingly, we order the document be recognized as the last will and testament of Lillie Beatrice Mott and, as such, be accepted into the record of the succession proceedings.
DECREE
The judgment of the trial court is reversed. Judgment is rendered recognizing the last will and testament of Lillie Beatrice Mott, in olographic form, dated December 11, 1987, as authentic and duly proved. It is ordered that said will be filed and recorded in the record of the succession proceedings. All costs of this appeal are assessed to the Estate of Lillie Beatrice Mott.
REVERSED AND RENDERED.
COOKS, J., dissents and assigns written reasons.
DECUIR, J., dissents for reasons assigned by COOKS, J.