Court Opinion

ID: 9620487
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:42:48.514096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:15.195533
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE WHITING,
dissenting.
I do not agree that Jared Wolfe’s letter lacked the requisite testamentary intent. The letter reviews the status of Wolfe’s affairs, expresses his intent to commit suicide, gives instructions to the executor regarding his estate, refers to his will, and then provides: “I want my daughters to share Vs, Vs, Vs." Wolfe’s 1982 will bequeathed a grandfather clock to one daughter, devised specific real properties to two of his daughters, and left the residue of his estate to a third daughter, with a provision that if either of the real properties were sold, the devisee of that particular property would receive one-third of the residue of his estate.
In my opinion, Wolfe clearly intended to avoid any disparities in the value of each daughter’s share of his estate when he wrote the letter addressed to his executor. Given the person to whom the letter was written, the circumstances under which the letter was written (fully described therein), and the clear language of disposition quoted above, I think this particular writing bears the necessary “stamp of testamentary intent” within the document itself.
*363Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court’s ruling in admitting the letter as a valid holographic codicil to Wolfe’s 1982 will.**

 I do not think it matters that there was no evidence of the values of the various properties in 1982, when the will was written. Clearly, Wolfe wanted to be certain that upon his death in 1992, each daughter would share equally in his estate: He did not want any one of them to be harmed or benefitted by a disparity in value caused by an increase or decrease in the value of a particular property passing under the 1982 will.