IN RE THE ESTATE OF MARILYN H. BROOKS: DENNIS BROOKS, PERSONALLY AND THE ESTATE OF MARILYN H. BROOKS, APPELLANTS, v. DIANE HIETPAS, JEROME BERGHUIS, EUGENE BERGHUIS, MARIANNE VAN HANDEL, JEAN MARIE HINDS AND RICHARD VAN HANDEL, RESPONDENTS., 2006 WI App 56

Summary

The decedent signed a preprinted form will naming her nephew as the sole beneficiary. The decedent died three months later without procuring witnesses' signatures to the will. Later, the decedent's neighbors came forward to sign and formally acknowledge the will, indicating they had seen the will during a visit to the decedent's home. After a hearing, the trial court concluded that the will was not validly executed because the decedent had not acknowledged either her signature on the will or the will itself to one of the neighbors. The sole beneficiary argued that the decedent implicitly acknowledged her will to both neighbors. The appellate court noted that it had no power to substitute its judgment for that of the legislature as to the essentials of a will, and that it could not lower the statutory requirements prescribed. The appellate court held that although the neighbors had signed the will within a reasonable time after witnessing it, one neighbor did not, implicitly or ...