In re Estate of Wait 43 Tenn. App. 217, 306 S.W.2d 345 (1957)
Wait invited some friends over to sign her will as attesters (aka witnesses). Wait tried to sign the will, but barely made a mark before she declared that her hand was shaking because she was ill. She directed her friends to sign and claimed that she would sign later, when she felt better. o A few days later, Wait showed her friend the signed will and declared that she had signed it. Wait died. Wait's relatives contested the validity of the will. o Wait's greedy relatives had been completely cut out of the will and wanted the money. The Probate Court found that the will was invalid. The Estate appealed. o The Probate Court found that, according to Tennessee State law, the testator has to sign the will before the attesters do. o Wait's Estate unsuccessfully argued that the mark she made on the paper before she gave up was close enough to a signature to count. Illiterate people have historically gotten away with just making an 'X', so this was kinda the same thing. The Appellate Court affirmed and found that the will was invalid. o The Appellate Court found that under Tennessee State law, there are three ways to sign a will properly: Sign in the presence of witnesses Sign before the witnesses get there and then tell them it is your signature Direct someone else to sign the will for you in the presence of the witnesses. o The Appellate Court found than an 'X' or other mark would have been ok, if the testator intended that to be their complete signature. That wasn't the case here. No one claimed that there was any fraud involved, or that the will did not accurately represent Wait's desires. This was
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solely a case of whether the will met the letter of the law. o Is it right to invalidate a will for nitpicky reasons like this? Once invalidated, Wait's estate would transfer according to intestate transfer laws, which may be significantly different than what she wanted. How is that just?