Brace's Estate, In re

• Decision Date: 10 May 1960
• Citation: 180 Cal.App.2d 797,4 Cal.Rptr. 683
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Matter of the ESTATE of Paul BRACE, etc., Deceased. Eileen DENMAN, Contestant and Appellant, v. Pura BERRY, Petitioner and Respondent. Civ. 24060.

Page 683

4 Cal.Rptr. 683

180 Cal.App.2d 797

Matter of the ESTATE of Paul BRACE, etc., Deceased.

Eileen DENMAN, Contestant and Appellant, v. Pura BERRY, Petitioner and Respondent.

Civ. 24060.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3, California.

May 10, 1960.

Frank S. Whiting, Pasadena, for appellant.

William S. Stack, Sherman Oaks, for respondent.

VALLEE, Justice.

Appeal from a judgment admitting a codicil to a will to probate.

Paul Brace died on January 7, 1958, in Guadalajara, Mexico. He left neither spouse nor issue surviving. On July 25, 1957, he executed a holographic will by which he left all his property to his step-daughter, Dolores Neifert. The will was admitted to probate by the probate court of the County of Los Angeles on February 13, 1958. The court found that at the time of his death Brace was a resident of the County of Los Angeles, State of California, and left estate therein. No appeal was taken from the order, and it became final. No contest of the will was filed within the statutory period after probate. Prob.Code, § 380. Dolores Neifert assigned her interest in the estate of Eileen Denman, her mother and the divorced wife of the deceased. The estate consists entirely of personal property.

On November 3, 1957, Brace executed a holographic codicil to the will by which he left everything he owned in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and $5,000 cash, to Pura Berry. The codicil was entirely written, dated, and signed by the hand of the testator.

Pura Berry petitioned for probate of the codicil. Eileen Denman filed contest. One of the grounds of contest was that the deceased was domiciled in Mexico at the time he executed the codicil and that it was not executed in conformity with the law of that country. The matter was heard by the court sitting without a jury. The court found: (1) The document dated November 3, 1957, is a codicil to the will of July 25, 1957. (2) At the time of his death and on the date the codicil was executed, the deceased was domiciled in the County of Los Angeles. Judgment followed, admitting the codicil to probate. Eileen Denman appeals.

At the hearing of the contest, evidence was received on the question whether the deceased was domiciled in Mexico or in California at the time the codicil was executed. The parties agree that the codicil was not executed in conformity with the laws of Mexico, and that it was executed according to the law of California. Contestant asserts the finding that the deceased was domiciled in California at the time the codicil was executed is unsupported by the evidence and is contrary to all the evidence. We do not reach this question since we have concluded the validity of the codicil is determined by the domicile of the deceased at the time of his death, and the order admitting the will to probate is conclusive that he was domiciled in California at that time.

The essential characteristic of a will or codicil is that during the life of the testator it is and remains ambulatory, having no effect until his death occurs. The death of the maker establishes for the first time the character of the instrument. Nichols v. Emery, 109 Cal. 323, 329, 41 P. 1089; Niccolls v. Niccolls, 168 Cal. 444, 446, 143 P. 712; Notten v. Mensing, 3 Cal.2d 469, 473, 45 P.2d 198; In re Estate of Newton, 35 Cal.2d 830, 831, 221 P.2d 952, 19 A.L.R.2d 1399; Shive v. Barrow, 88 Cal.App.2d 838, 843, 199 P.2d 693; Daniels v. Bridges, 123 Cal.App.2d 585, 589, 267 P.2d 343. The general rule is that a will disposing of personal property is governed, as to the formal requisites essential to its validity, by the law in force at the place of domicile of the testator at the time of his death. In re Estate of Patterson, 64 Cal.App. 643, 647-648, 222 P. 374; In re Estate of Davision, 96 Cal.App.2d 263, 267-268, 215 P.2d 504. The Restatement says:

'The validity and effect of a will of movables is determined by the law of the state in which the deceased died domiciled. * * *

'd. Change of domicil after making will. If, after making his will, a person changes his domicil, the validity of his will is determined by the law of the state of his domicil at death, not of his domicil at the time of executing the will.' Rest., Conflict of Laws, 387, § 306.

The testator in Re Estate of Barton, 196 Cal. 508, 238 P. 681, was found to be a resident of California at the time of his death. At the time he executed his will he was domiciled in Rhode Island. On his death a portion of his personal property was physically within Rhode Island. Answering the contention that the law of the domicile at the time of the execution of the will, and not at the time of death, controlled the disposition of the personal property in Rhode Island, the court stated (196 Cal. at page 514, 238 P. at page 683):

'As in the case of other laws concerning the operation and effect of wills and as in the case of laws governing the validity and revocation of wills, it is the law of the domicile at the time of death that applies, at least, in the case of bequests of personal property. In Alexander on Wills, volume 1, page 345, the law is stated as follows: 'If a testator, subsequent to making a testatmentary disposition of personal property, removes to a different state, or country, and becomes domiciled there, in the event of his death his will is controlled, as to personalty, by the laws of his last domicile. Should different laws prevail and the will fail to company with the requirements of the law of the last domicile of the testator, such change of domicile would, in effect, be a revocation of the bequests, since the personal property could not pass under the instrument,' citing In re Coburn's Will, 9 Misc.Rep. 437, 30 N.Y Supp. 383; Irwin's Appeal, 33 Conn. 128; Matter of Braithwaite, 19 Abb. N.C. (N.Y.) 113. See, also, Estate of Patterson, 64 Cal.App. 643, 222 P.374.'

Also see Estate of Reynolds, 217 Cal. 557, 20 P.2d 323. In re Estate of Patterson, supra, 64 Cal.App. 643, at page 647, 222 P. 374, at page 375, says:

'Mr. Schouler, in his work on Wills, Executors and Administrators (5th Ed., vol. 2, p. 889), lays down the rule that, 'The law of the place of last domicile regulates as to the execution and validity of wills of personal property.' And Mr. Alexander in his Commentaries on Wills (volume 1, p. 338) says that, 'The general rule, except as modified or changed by statute, is that a will disposing of personal property is governed, as to the formal requisites essential to its validity and as to its construction, by the law in force at the place of domicile of the testator at the time of his death.' In Wharton on the Conflict of Laws (3d Ed.) vol. 2, p. 1351, is found the statement that, 'The question whether the marriage of the testatrix, or the birth of a child subsequently to the execution of the will, revokes the same, depends upon the lex domicilii so far as personal property is concerned, and upon the lex rei sitae so far as real property is concerned.' And as announcing the same principle, see the following cases: Mills v. Fogal, 4 Edw.Ch. (N.Y.) 559; In re Coburn's Will, 9 Misc.Rep. 437, 30 N.Y.Supp. 383; Evansville I. & C. S. Co. v. Winsor, 148 Ind. 682, 48 N.E. 592; Van Wickle v. Van Wickle, 59 N. J.Eq. 317, 44 Atl. 877; Ware v. Wisner, (C.C.), 50 Fed. 310; Kingsbury v. Burnside, 58 Ill. 310, 11 Am.Rep. 67; Eyre v. Storer, 37 N.H. 115; In re Harwood, 172 N.Y.Supp. 296; Crandell v. Barker, 8 N.D. 263, 78 N.W. 347; In re Witter's Estate, (Sur.), 15 N.Y.Supp. 133; Moultrie v. Hunt, 23 N.Y. 394; Despard v. Churchill, 53 N.Y. 192; Lowndes v. Cooch, 87 Md. 478, 39 Atl. 1045, 40 L.R.A. 380; Lewis v. Corbin, 195 Mass. 520, 81 N.E. 248, 122 Am.St.Rep. 261; Martin v. Stovall, 103 Tenn. 1, 52 S.W. 296, 48 L.R.A. 130; McEwan v. Brown, 176 N.C. 249, 97 S.E. 20.'

To the text writers quoted from in Barton and Patterson may be added the following. Gardner:

'Since personal property has, broadly speaking, no locus apart from the domicile of its owner, and there being no reason why the sovereign within whose jurisdiction it chances to be physically situated should interfere with the method of its devolution, it is steadily held that in regard to testamentary capacity, method or execution, and construction the law of the state or country in which the testator was domiciled at the time of his death controls.'

(Gardner on Wills, 303, §§ 93-94.) Wharton:

'It is a principle of the common law of England, as has been already stated, that a will, executed according to the forms of the testator's last domicile, will pass his movable property wherever it may be found; and that, if not executed according to such form, it is inoperative as to movables.'

(II Wharton on Conflict of Laws, 1303, § 585.) Underhill:

'The validity of a will of personal property being determined according to the law of the domicile of the testator at the time of his death, irrespective of the fact that the property is located within another jurisdiction, it may become necessary to ascertain what the law of the domicile is.'

(I Underhill on the Law on Wills, 35, § 30.) Page:

'The validity of a testament by which personal property is bequeathed is determined by the law of the domicile of testator at the time of his death, even if its situs is in another state.'

(4 Page on Wills, Lifetime ed., 702, § 1637.) Leflar:

'The general rule of the common law is that * * * the validity of wills of movable personalty is determined by the law of the testator's domicile at death.'

(Leflar, Conflict of Laws, 357, § 186.) Rollison:

'Validity of a will of personal property is to be determined by the law of his [testator's] last domicil.'

(Rollison, Law of Wills, 154, § 88. To the same effect, In re Estate of Nolan, 135 Cal.App.2d 16, 18-20, 286 P.2d 899, 50 A.L.R.2d 1369; 15 C.J.S. Conflict of Laws, § 18f, p. 935; 11 Am.Jur. 479, §§ 172-3; 57 Am.Jur. 79, § 61; annotation 129 A.L.R. 859.)

Section 301 of the Probate Code provides that...