Goss v. Staples

MR. JUSTICE PREEBOURN:

This action comes to us on appeal. The question presented to us is whether or not a letter from the decedent to a stepchild is a holographic will. Two district judges found the letter to be such a will. Under the will the disposition of the property goes to residents of Montana who are stepchildren of the deceased.

The questioned instrument is a letter of seven pages, dated November 29, 1945, signed by the maker, and entirely in her own handwriting. It contained in part the following language: “There is something else I want you, George, and the family to know and that is…