How have courts interpreted a joint will where a husband and wife's joint will agreement to leave everything to a specific person?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Westbrook v. Superior Court, 176 Cal.App.3d 703, 222 Cal.Rptr. 317 (Cal. App. 1986):

Westbrook also relies on the decision in Brewer v. Simpson, supra, 53 Cal.2d 567, 2 Cal.Rptr. 609, 349 P.2d 289. That case, however, is unlike the case at hand. It was a joint will case in which, as construed, each spouse agreed to leave everything to the surviving spouse in consideration of the surviving spouse's agreement to leave all his or her property, including that received from the other, to [176 Cal.App.3d 714] specified persons. The husband died, and, as in almost all the joint will cases, the property covered by the contract, or at least the property passing from the first decedent to the surviving spouse, became specifically known. The wife thereafter remarried and conveyed everything to herself and her new husband in joint tenancy. There was a long history of attempts to defeat the wills contract including commingling of property and failure to keep proper records.

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