New York trusts and estates practitioners take note: A recent decision of the New Jersey Appellate Division sheds light on the marked contrast between the formalities required for the admissibility of a will to probate in New York state and the more flexible standards espoused by New Jersey. Specifically, the New Jersey court concluded that an unexecuted and unwitnessed will could be admitted to probate. In an ironic twist, the testator was a trusts and estates attorney from Burlington County, N.J., who practiced for more than 50 years.
In Matter of the Estate of Ehrlich, N.J. Super (App. Div., June 29, 2012), the Appellate Division was presented with the issue of whether an “unexecuted copy of a purportedly executed original document sufficiently represent[ed] decedent’s final testamentary intent to be admitted into probate” under New Jersey law. In affirming the chancery (lower) court’s admission of the proffered instrument to probate, the court discounted the instrument’s missing signature and attestation clause and found that such technical infirmities were overcome by the document’s apparent reflection of the testator’s intent. In so doing, the court rejected the dissent’s seemingly reasonable position that the lack of a signature is an insurmountable obstacle to the probate of a will.
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