Smalling v. Terrell

OPINION

SUSANO, Judge.

This litigation focuses on the ownership of 36 acres of farmland in Monroe County. The plaintiff claims that she is the fee simple owner of the property by virtue of the holographic will of William P. Avery, the man with whom she lived from 1980 until his death by suicide on May 28, 1994. The trial court held that a two-acre tract,1 including a house, passed absolutely to the plaintiff under the terms of the will, but that the remaining 34 acres “passed under [a] resulting trust to the defendants.” The plaintiff appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in finding that…