Court Opinion

ID: 9537005
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:11:01.175467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:42.973277
License: Public Domain

Gunderson, J.,
concurring:
This was not a case involving a deceased who simply “marries after making a will,” as NRS 133.110 envisions. Here, the deceased made a will while obtaining a divorce that settled the parties’ property rights, then remarried the same woman. It seems evident to me that our legislature did not intend to deal with such a situation when it promulgated NRS 133.110; thus, I would simply hold the statute inapplicable to the case at bar. Cf. Perkins v. Brown, 27 So.2d 521 (Fla. 1946).
The assumption that NRS 133.110 applies mechanically to any situation where a testator “marries,” including any where he divorces and remarries, requires the majority to avoid injustice in this case by concluding that “to prevent revocation a *146spouse must merely be mentioned in such a way as to show an intention not to make any provision for that person,” even in situations where the will is not made in contemplation of marriage. These departures from what I conceive to be sound law may, I believe, cause injustice in future cases.
For example, in the case before us, were it not for the fortuitous fact that the majority is able to determine Freda Leggett was “mentioned in such a way as to show an intention not to make any provision for her,” the majority’s pronouncements would allow her recovery although Mrs. Leggett received a property settlement in the divorce, and remarriage left her situated as she was when the will was executed. Again, under the majority’s pronouncements, NRS 133.110 will not operate, as it should, to protect pretermitted wives I believe our legislature must surely have intended to protect, e.g. women who, before any marriage, are mentioned but not substantially provided for in wills executed by men they later marry. Cf. In Re Poisl’s Estate, 280 P.2d 789 (Cal. 1955).
Zenoff, C. L, concurs.