In Horton, the Michigan Court of Appeals addressed the question of whether a decedent intended that an electronic document should constitute his Last Will and Testament. The Court analyzed requirements for a valid will, and whether an electronic document can be a valid will under the Estates & Protected Individuals Code (MCL 700.1101, et seq.).
The decedent’s Conservator filed a petition for probate in Berrien Probate Court, seeking among other things admission of decedent’s electronic “farewell” note as decedent’s will. The will contestant, the decedent’s mother, appealed as of right the trial court order recognizing the electronic document— which excluded her—as the valid will of decedent.
Prior to his suicide, the 21-year-old decedent left a handwritten journal entry, undisputedly in his own writing, directing readers to the electronic final “farewell” note on his cell phone. The entry included access information, such as a title and password. In a fact-heavy opinion, the MCOA noted that the handwritten entry was penned “in anticipation of [decedent’s] imminent death by his own hands.”
The Court took this into account, along with other evidence including: “the nature of decedent’s relationship with his mother;” the decedent’s “clear directive that none of his money go to his mother;” and the specific disposition of his property in the electronic note. Thus, the panel found the circumstances supported a conclusion that decedent intended the “electronic note to govern distribution of his property to ensure that his mother did not inherit from him.”
The Court affirmed the trial court, holding that “[o]verall, considering both the document itself and the extrinsic evidence submitted at the hearing, the trial court did not err by concluding that [conservator] presented clear and convincing evidence that decedent intended the electronic note to constitute his will, and thus the document constitutes a valid will under MCL 700.2503
