Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York
last will and testament
margaret has a four page will. the pages were incorrectly stapled. on page four, which the testator signed, came before the residuary clause on page three. the law of new york requires that the testator sign the will at the end and provides that matter, other than the attestation clause, following the testator's signature is ineffective. was the residuary clause in this case ineffective? why or why not?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: last will and testament
Your facts are a little confusing. If the document was properly laid out, in the required order of disposition and execution, and the pages were clearly numbered, it is obvious that the document was stapled incorrectly and should be correctly assembled for submission to probate. This sounds like a case I had recently where a page was inadvertently not included when the document was submitted for probate, because the page got separated when the document was photocopied prior to submission. All that was necessary was to submit the missing page with a letter explaining what happened. It would appear that the mis-stapling was also inadvertent.
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