Irving v. Divito

Record No: 170071 (as published by the Virginia Supreme Court) In a proceeding to review a clerk’s decision to deny probate to a handwritten notation on a tab-divider in a binder of estate planning documents, the record in this case supports the circuit court’s rulings that the holographic writing was not signed in the manner required by Code § 64.2-403(A), and the proponent failed to show that it is manifest that the decedent’s initials were intended as his. The record also supports the circuit court’s conclusion that the proponent did not prove by clear and convincing evidence that the writing was intended as a codicil or executed with testamentary intent under Code § 64.2-404. The judgment refusing to probate this writing as a codicil to the decedent’s will is affirmed.