Surrogate Norm Norah sitting in Manhattan Surrogates Court recently had a case before her where a brother objected to being disinherited in a will. In this case the decedent’s brothers challenged the probate of the will. The two brothers were the sole blood relatives of the decedent sister. However, the sister had disinherited them in her will drafted and executed in the year 2000. The brothers claimed that the will was not properly executed and had been fraudulently altered.
WILL SUBMITTED TO BE PROBATED
The will was submitted to probate with evidence the decedent and her late husband had executed mirror image wills. These wills were executed at the office of the attorney draftsperson. The brothers claimed the will had typographical and drafting errors in it. The attorney who drafted the will claimed that these last minute modifications to the will were made by the decedent and were also caused by carelessness when he proofread the will. The attorney draftsman claimed he had copied the provisions of the decedent’s previous will drafted in 1999 word for word and that will also disinherited the decedent’s brothers. Although the brothers did not challenge the attorney’s explanation for the errors in the will, they claimed the mere existence of these errors was sufficient to negate the presumption that the will was properly executed.
WILL ACCEPTED TO PROBATE
Judge Anderson disagreed with the presentation made by the brothers challenging the will. She found the evidence was sufficient to show the will had been executed with the appropriate execution formalities. She granted summary judgment dismissing the challenge to the probate of the will by the brothers.
Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq. And his associates represent clients in all aspects of wills & estate proceedings.
