In re Estate of Cole
Minnesota Court of Appeals
621 N.W.2d 816 (2001)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
In her will, Ruth Cole left “two hundred thousand dollars ($25,000)” to her friend Veta Vining. The personal representative of Cole’s estate petitioned the court to construe the bequest as $25,000, not $200,000, based on an affidavit and file notes of the attorney who prepared the will. The attorney said that he copied and pasted another bequest to someone else of “two hundred thousand dollars $200,000,” then changed the name to Vining and the numerals to $25,000, but forgot to change the words to “twenty-five thousand dollars.” Based on that evidence, the court granted summary judgment construing the bequest as $25,000. Vining appealed, arguing the court should not have considered evidence outside the will to interpret Cole’s intent.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Crippen, J.)
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