2012-10-15
Dictated Will Invalidated Because Witnesses were Not Present
The deceased, An-Qiu Huang, was accompanied by his son when the deceased dictated his will. His daughter, Yu-Ying Huang, questioned the distribution of the deceased’s estate and filed a civil complaint arguing that the will was invalid.
During the civil proceeding, two witnesses to the will testified that when the will was made, they were both smoking outside of the room.
Taiwan’s Supreme Court opined that the will does not qualify as a dictated will and ruled it invalid.
According to Taiwan’s Civil Code, there must be three witnesses to a will and one of these witnesses must record in writing the will according to the testator’s oral statements.
In this case, the deceased went to an escrow agent’s office and asked the assistant of the agent to record in writing his will. Nevertheless, the Court found that when the assistant was recording the will in writing, the other two witnessed were outside of the agent’s office smoking, and they only returned to the office after the will was completely recorded in writing. Therefore, the dictated will was ruled to be invalid.
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