Estate of Lund

Opinion

THE COURT.

This is an appeal from an order sustaining exceptions to the recommendations of a probate commissioner in an heirship proceeding.

'A will and several codicils of the decedent, Grace Lund, were admitted to probate. The will left certain gifts of personal property and cash to various persons, with the residue going to appellant. One of the specific gifts in the will was to respondent, the provision reading as follows:

GBL GBL

JWM Ten CCK JWM ($10,000.00) CCK

“Eighth: I give the sum of Live Thousand Dollars ($5;000.-09-) to Margarita Varga, provided she shall survive me.” The interlineations were handwritten, and the initials appear to be those of the decedent and the two witnesses to execution of the will.

[670]

A holographic codicil, executed two years after the will and labeled as a “codicil,” simply stated decedent’s wish that respondent have $20,000 and a fur mink coat, these gifts to be free of all taxes. A fur mink coat was not mentioned in the will.

Subsequent codicils left an additional gift of personal property, not mentioned in the will, to one of the other legatees under the will and authorized decedent’s bank, in the event of decedent’s death, to pay respondent sufficient funds for her passage home to Argentina and for a visa and other required papers.

The entire estate was valued at approximately $260,000.

Appellant contends that the gift of $20,000 to respondent under the first codicil mentioned above was intended as a substitution for the gift of $10,000 under the will. A probate commissioner, to whom the issue was referred on a petition to determine heirship in the trial court, concluded that the $20,000 gift was substitutional. The trial court, however, disagreed with this conclusion and ordered that respondent was entitled to $30,000 and a fur mink coat, as well as payment of her passage to Argentina and expenses of a visa and other required papers.