What is the Doctrine of Dependent Relative Revocation?

Uncategorized • Nov 11, 2015

you have a relative whose estate is about to pass through intestacy? If there were old wills that were revoked a rarely applied doctrine may come into play in West Palm Beach. Have you heard of thedoctrine of dependent relative revocation? To learn more check out this recent case out of the Second District Court of Appeal.

Doctrine of Dependent Relative Revocation

That is a mouthful, the doctrine of dependent relative revocation, but what does it mean?
Often times people will execute and invalid will and in the process revoke their prior valid wills.
This is a problem because the new will is not going to be accepted by the probate courtand admitted to probate.
So what happens?
The person will die intestate and the intestate rules of succession will apply.
That is not usually a good thing.
But wait a minute, the testator only revoked their prior valid West Palm Beach will because they thought they were executing a new one.
The courts are willing to acknowledge that the will was revoked dependent on another document, thus the doctrine.
This allows the prior will’s revocation to be undone by operation of the courts sparing your estate from intestacy.
That is what happened in this recent case out of the Second District Court of Appeals for Florida after a 107 year old woman left over $12 million in her estate!

In re Estate of Murphy

In this case a woman died at the age of 107 leaving 12 million dollars!
She left no husband or children and her long time attorney executed a will in 1994 that left the bulk of her estate to him.
The woman’s second cousin was pretty upset to learn about this and she filed a will contest based on undue influence.
After a heated probate trial the Court struck the will and the woman’s estate was going to pass through intestacy.
On appeal the Second District Court noted that the trial court had made an error and ignored the doctrine of dependent relative revocation.
In other words the only reason the older will was revoked was because she thought this 1994 will was valid, which it was not.
As a result her old will should be revived.
This same doctrine exists in the probate courts in West Palm Beach.

Want to learn more about the doctrine of dependent relative revocation?

Check out the entire case by clicking here.

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