IN RE PAVLINKO'S ESTATE
394 Pa. 564,143 A.2d 523 (1959)



Procedure:Proceeding in the matter of the probate of the will of the deceased. From a decree of the Orphans' Court of Allegheny County, William S. Rahauser, J., the beneficiary appealed.

Facts: Vasil Pavlinko and his wife, Hellen, hired an attorney to draw up their wills. In those wills, they left their property to each other and, in the event that one predeceased the other, left their property to various other people. By mistake, Hellen and Vasil signed each other's wills. Hellen died before her husband, but her will was not probated. Following Vasil's death, Hellen's brother, the residuary legatee of her will (the one signed by Vasil), offered the will signed by Vasil for probate. Probate was refused, and he appealed.

Issue:Where a husband and wife have substantially identical wills, but each has signed the other's will by mistake, may the will signed by the testator be probated as his?

Holding: The Supreme Court,Bell, J., held that where husband and wife drew up wills leaving their property to each other but by mistake the wife signed the will which was prepared for the husband and the husband signed the will prepared for the wife, the will reciting that it was the will of the wife could not be probated as the will of the husband and was a nullity. Decree affirmed.

Rule: A will must be signed by the testator.

Analysis: Uniform Probate Code (UPC) § 2-503 adopted a principle that allows courts to ignore a lack of adherence to the required formalities if there is clear and convincing evidence that a document is intended as a decedent's will. That section reads: "Although a document or writing added upon a document was not executed in compliance with Section 2-502, the document or writing is treated as if it had been executed in compliance with that section if the proponent of the document or writing establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the decedent intended the document or writing to constitute (i) the decedent's will, (ii) a partial or complete revocation of the will, (iii) an addition to or an alteration of the will, or (iv) a partial or complete revival of his formerly revoked will or of a formerly revoked portion of the will."