{"id":11561,"date":"2025-06-16T16:03:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=11561"},"modified":"2025-06-16T16:03:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:03:56","slug":"nonsubscribing-witnesses-saw-decedents-signature-not-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=11561","title":{"rendered":"Nonsubscribing Witnesses Saw Decedent&#8217;s Signature, Not Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Although the will was not self-proving because one the subscribing witnesses did not witness the execution of the will, the Orphans&#8217; Court found that two witnesses who observed the signing of the will through the window of the decedent&#8217;s home (but did not enter the decedent&#8217;s home because of COVID) presented credible testimony that the decedent signed the will, and so the will was properly admitted to probate.  The decedent&#8217;s signature was not his customary signature, and was barely legible, but it was made without assistance and was not a &#8220;mark&#8221; requiring two subscribing witnesses.  The beneficiaries of a previous will were not &#8220;indispensable parties&#8221; to the will contest and so the court had jurisdiction without notice to them.  <em>In re: Estate of Patricia Ann Rocco, Deceased<\/em>, ___ A.4th ___, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Superior\/out\/J-A05016-25o%20-%20106401527314680576.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2025 PA Super 120<\/a> (6\/11\/2025).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although the will was not self-proving because one the subscribing witnesses did not witness the execution of the will, the Orphans&#8217; Court found that two witnesses who observed the signing of the will through the window of the decedent&#8217;s home &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=11561\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[845,704,505],"class_list":["post-11561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-indispensable-party","tag-signature-by-mark","tag-witness-to-will","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11562,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions\/11562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}