## Facts

- Arnold H. Johnson completed a preprinted will form containing printed testamentary clauses and blank spaces for handwritten entries.
- Johnson handwrote his name and address, listed eight beneficiaries with names and addresses, named an executrix, filled in the month and day, and signed the document.
- Next to one beneficiary, Johnson wrote “To John M. Johnson 1/8 of my Estate”; next to each of the other seven beneficiaries, he wrote only “1/8.”
- The attestation/witness portion of the form was left incomplete, so the document could not qualify as a formally witnessed will.
- The document was offered for probate as a holographic will, but the trial court denied probate because the material provisions were not in Johnson’s handwriting.

## Issues

1. Whether a document prepared on a preprinted will form can be admitted to probate as a holographic will when essential testamentary language and intent appear only in the printed text, not in the testator’s handwriting.
2. Whether the handwritten entries, viewed without the printed form language, sufficiently express testamentary intent and a disposition effective at death.

## Decision

- The Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s refusal to admit the document to probate as a holographic will.
- The court held the handwritten portions, standing alone and disregarding printed words, did not express testamentary intent.
- The estate therefore proceeded as if there were no valid will (absent any other valid testamentary instrument).

## Legal Principles

- Under Arizona’s holographic will statute (then A.R.S. § 14-2503), the material provisions of a holographic will must be in the testator’s handwriting.
- Printed language on a form cannot supply essential testamentary elements for a holographic will when the handwritten portion alone does not evidence an intent to dispose of property at death.
- The handwritten portion must, by itself, demonstrate both testamentary intent and the dispositive scheme; ambiguous handwritten terms (including “estate”) may be insufficient without relying on printed context.

## Conclusion

A preprinted will form signed and partially completed by hand was not a valid holographic will because the handwritten entries alone did not show an intent to make a post-death disposition; essential testamentary meaning could not be supplied by the printed form language.


In re Estate of Johnson, 630 P.2d 1039 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1981)