From a “dirt” point of view, it seems cases where I am able to agree with the South Carolina Court of Appeals are few and far between these days. But an estate case was handed down on April 3 that should make perfect sense to all dirt lawyers*.

The case involved the will of William Paradeses who lived in Richland County and died in early 2016. The will, which was executed in 2008, was discovered in the home of the deceased shortly after his death.

The will contained a strikeout of Item IV(2), which originally provided for a $50,000 bequest to Fay Greeson, the respondent in this case. Next to the deletion was a handwritten note: “Omit #2 W.D. Paradeses.”  The will also contained a handwritten addition to Item IV(1), which placed a condition on Paradeses’ bequest of his interest in the Saluda Investment Company. That notation stated: “A.D. and J.D. Paradeses will have control until it is sold and no one else.” There were no witnesses to either of these changes. A.D. and J.D. Paradeses agreed to comply with the Testator’s second notation.

Georganna Paradeses, the personal representative, filed a petition for a declaratory judgment seeking an order from the probate court declaring the rights of the parties and the effect of the notations. Faye Greeson filed an answer denying the deletion of her bequest was made by the testator and asserting the deletion failed because of improper attestation. The remaining family answered and alleged the testator made the notations with the intent to change his will.

The probate court found that the addition and deletion were consistent with a codicil and required proper execution. The probate court therefore held that the bequest of $50,000 to Faye Greeson remained valid. The remaining notation on the will was not in dispute.

The Court of Appeals relied on South Carolina Code §62-2-502, which states that a will may be freely modified or revoked by a mentally competent testator until death, and §62-2-506(a), which states that a will may be revoked by executing a subsequent will or by burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating or destroying the document with the intent to revoke it.

The appellants argued that the deletion in the will amounted to a partial revocation, which should have been allowed by §62-2-506(a) despite the absence of witnesses. They cited a 1912 South Carolina Supreme Court case** which held a strikeout in a will amounted to a revocation of the stricken provision.

The Court of Appeals, however, relied on another South Carolina Supreme Court case** that decided changes to a will with both an addition and a deletion were more akin to a codicil, which requires the normal formalities of the execution of a will. The testator’s notes in the case at hand were held by the Court of Appeals to amount to a codicil, and the bequest to Faye Greeson stood.

Dirt lawyers like certainty, and, for that reason, we like this case!

*In the Matter of Paradeses, South Carolina Court of Appeals Opinion 5635 (April 3, 2019)

**Citations omitted.