In a contested probate case, the mother bought several CD’s. She had the bank list them under her name and her son’s name: “Mother or Son.” There was no question that all of the money in the CD’s came from mother. Eight days before mother died, son cashed out the CD’s. When they were not [...]
Archive of entries posted on August 2009
Is a forged will good for something?
It can be used to determine when the statute of limitations starts running says the San Antonio Court of Appeals. A man died. A will was offered and admitted to probate. A contest was filed. The jury found the will to be a forgery. The trial court ruled that the testator died intestate. There was [...]
Can you probate a will that has been revoked?
In some circumstances, the Houston Court of Appeals says you can. Once a will is revoked, it is revoked. It does not come back to life based on later events. The only way to bring the will back to life is to execute a new will with all of the formalities required by law. In [...]
Where do you sign a will?
In a recent case, the testator had what was obviously a self made will. It was not prepared by a lawyer. As you might expect in that situation, the will was contested. The contest involved the location of the signature of the testator. The will was four pages long. The first two pages gave the [...]
When is a gift not a gift?
In a recent case, the second paragraph of a will gave a piece of land to the testator‘s wife “to be hers absolutely forever.” The third paragraph of the will gave the land to the testator‘s sons in the event of the simultaneous death of the testator and his wife or “upon the death of [...]
