## Facts

- Edward R. Laura, Sr. (the testator) had three children: Edward R. Laura, Jr., Shirley, and Jo Ann.
- Jo Ann predeceased Edward Sr.
- Jo Ann had two sons, Richard and Neil.
- About ten years after Jo Ann’s death, Edward Sr. executed a will that left his estate to his daughter Shirley.
- The will expressly named and disinherited Edward Jr., Richard, and Neil.
- Neil had two children, Cecilia and Neil III (the plaintiffs/great-grandchildren).
- The will did not name Cecilia or Neil III and did not leave them any property.
- Neil (the plaintiffs’ father) predeceased Edward Sr.
- After Edward Sr. died, Shirley offered the will for probate.
- Cecilia and Neil III brought a claim seeking an intestate share as pretermitted heirs under New Hampshire’s pretermitted heir statute, RSA 551:10.
- The trial court rejected their claim, and Cecilia and Neil III appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether great-grandchildren who are not named in the will are entitled to an intestate share as pretermitted heirs under RSA 551:10 when their parent (and the family line through which they would take) is expressly named and disinherited in the will.

## Decision

- The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed.
- The court held that Cecilia and Neil III were not entitled to take as pretermitted heirs under RSA 551:10.
- The court concluded that the will’s express naming and disinheritance of the plaintiffs’ father (and related members of that branch) showed the testator considered that line and intentionally excluded it, so the statute did not supply the great-grandchildren an intestate share.

## Legal Principles

- RSA 551:10 is designed to prevent unintentional disinheritance of a child, or the issue of a child, who is omitted from the will because the testator failed to account for them.
- When a will names or refers to the relevant ancestor through whom a claimant would inherit—especially by expressly disinheriting that ancestor—the omission of the ancestor’s issue is not treated as the kind of accidental omission the statute addresses.
- The statute is not applied to rewrite a will that shows a conscious choice to exclude a particular family branch.
- A testator’s explicit disinheritance of a person may be read to exclude that person’s descendants as part of the same dispositive choice, absent language showing a different intent.

## Conclusion

In re Estate of Laura holds that RSA 551:10 does not grant pretermitted-heir status to great-grandchildren omitted from a will when the will expressly names and disinherits the ancestor through whom they would inherit, because the will demonstrates the testator considered—and chose to exclude—that family line rather than overlooking it by mistake.


In re Estate of Laura, 141 N.H. 628, 690 A.2d 1011 (1997)