Matter of Will of Lamparter

LAKE, Justice.

This appeal presents the single issue of whether beneficiaries under a holographic will may testify in a caveat proceeding as to oral communications between themselves and the decedent with regard to the testator’s intent to make a new will or about specific bequests to be contained in a new will. The Court of Appeals majority concluded that Rule 601(c) of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence, the Dead Man’s Statute, does not disqualify interested beneficiaries from testifying with regard to oral communications between themselves and the decedent. The Court of Appeals thus…