Court Opinion

ID: 9759175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:08:10.26061+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:00.022930
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result.
Testatrix, Nancy M. Janney, a Pennsylvania domiciliary, died on June 22, 1974, leaving a will executed in 1971. In her will, she named as sole beneficiary and executrix her sister, appellant Carolyn Case, who also served as one of the two attesting witnesses to the instrument. Among the assets in testatrix’s estate was real property located in Bound Brook, New Jersey. During the course of administration this property was sold to a third party for cash. The net proceeds of the sale were included in appellant’s First and Final Accounting of the estate.
On September 20, 1978, appellees, intestate heirs of testatrix, filed exceptions to appellant’s Final Accounting and *404Statement of Proposed Distribution. They argued that, because the law of the situs governs the testamentary disposition of real property and because the law in effect in New Jersey at the time of testatrix’s death prohibited an attesting witness from receiving any benefit under a will, an intestacy existed with regard to the real property located in New Jersey. The Orphans’ Court of Monroe County sustained appellees’ exceptions and decreed that the proceeds from the sale of the real estate should pass through intestacy to appellees. Appellant’s exceptions to the decree were dismissed, and this appeal followed.
Because the testamentary disposition of real property is governed by the law of the situs as a matter of comity, we must inquire into the nature and extent of New Jersey’s present interests in testatrix’s Bound Brook realty. That is, rather than automatically apply the law of New Jersey in effect at the time of testatrix’s death, we must ask what a New Jersey court would do now if faced with appellees’ exceptions to the distribution of the property pursuant to testatrix’s intent as expressed in her Pennsylvania will.
Three considerations lead to the conclusion that New Jersey would give effect to testatrix’s clear intent: first, as the property has been sold, the marketability of the New Jersey title is unimpaired; second, New Jersey no longer bars an attesting witness from benefiting under a will, N.J.S.A. 3A:2A-7; and third, New Jersey now considers valid a will executed in another state if the will is in compliance with the requirements of that state, regardless of any formal deficiencies which may exist under New Jersey law, N.J.S.A. 3A:2A-8. As no present New Jersey interest would be offended by the distribution to appellant of the proceeds from the sale of the Bound Brook property in accordance with testatrix’s intent, the decree of the orphans’ court must be reversed. See Griffith v. United Air Lines, Inc., 416 Pa. 1, 203 A.2d 796 (1964).
O’BRIEN, C. J., joins in this concurring opinion.