Court Opinion

ID: 9811306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:16:28.564478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:12:01.675132
License: Public Domain

Walkee, J\,
dissenting: I cannot agree to the result in this case. The four papers were found together in one package, three undated and unsigned and the other undated, but subscribed by the testator, and underneath his signature are the words “last will.” The Court says there is no evidence that this paper-writing was his last will. I am of a contrary opinion. The testator evidently thought that an unsubscribed paper-writing was not a will and that it required his signature at the end of it to make it so, and, therefore, he signed at the end the one he intended to operate as his will, and, to avoid any possible miscarriage of his purpose, he not only signed it, but inserted under the signature the words “last will,” so as to clearly indicate that it was so intended. If this is not so, why did he not also sign the others and write something-on them (or one of them), in order to indicate his purpose that it should be his last will? He regarded the others as incomplete, and when he had finally decided as to how he would dispose of his property, he wrote this paper, signed it and added the words “last will” as a certain and sure index to his intention. Why did he sign at all, if he thought subscription was not an essential requisite of a will? He had signed the other papers, in a technical sense, but he manifestly did not know it, not being a lawyer, but it appears that he had been a man of sense and *68judgment, and having written the last one, be subscribed it and so distinguished it from the others, as the last expression of his desires, in order to make his meaning and his wishes in regard to the disposition of his property perfectly plain. It is for the jury, and not for this Court, to say what he really meant, and whether this paper is in fact his last will and testament. He had, no doubt, good and valid reasons for the changes he made, but they were satisfactory to him, whether wise and discreet or not, and that is enough, for it is his will and not ours, and he had the right to do with his own as he chose, provided he did not contravene any law, and this he has not done.
Justice Hone concurs in this dissenting opinion.