Gillespie v. Gillespie

MARTONE, Justice.

This case requires us to address the troubling question of whether a Will 1 expresses the will of a person who signs it under very stressful circumstances at that moment in time when life and death intersect.

I. THE FACTS

The material facts are not in dispute. In 1979, Grace Gillespie, now deceased, executed a Will which gave three-fourths of her estate in equal shares to each of her three children, James Gillespie, Bernadette Gillespie Wolfswinkel, and Sidney Gillespie. Grace left the remaining one-fourth of her estate in trust for her mother. If her mother predeceased her,…