15 Guam Code Ann. § 113
Terms Used In 15 Guam Code Ann. § 113
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Probate: Proving a will
- Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
(2) Executed according to the law of the State or United States territory in which it was executed; or
(3) Valid under the laws of the State or United States territory in which the testator was domiciled at death; or
(4) Valid under the laws of the State or United States territory in which the testator was domiciled at the time of the execution of the will.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this Section, no will made in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands is valid as a will in Guam unless:
(1) Executed according to the provisions of this Title; or
(2) Executed according to the written law of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
SOURCE: Subsection (a): California Probate Code, § 26 (as amended). Subsection
(b): Guam Law Revision Commission.
COMMENT: Section 113 considerably liberalizes the provisions of the equivalent provision in the Probate Code of Guam (1970), in that subsection (a) makes valid as a will in Guam virtually any will made in a State or other United States territory which would be valid under the laws of the State or territory in which it was made. Given modern mobility and transient population patterns, and given that one purpose of the law of wills in Guam is to effectuate the testator’s intent to the greatest extent practicable, there seems to be no reason why foreign wills, if valid in another American jurisdiction, should not be valid in Guam as well. Moreover, the determination of other American jurisdictions’ law in order to determine whether a foreign will is valid thereunder, which might have been a problem at the time of the adoption of the original Probate Code of Guam, should no longer pose a great difficulty to the courts of Guam, given the widespread use of instantaneous electronic communications, jet transportation, etc. The same does not hold true,
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15 Guam Code Ann. ESTATES AND PROBATE
CH. 1 WHO MAY MAKE AND TAKE BY A WILL
however, for countries other than the United States. This being the case, the
Commission has purposely excluded from § 113 wills made in foreign countries.
The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (T.T.P.I.), which is covered in subsection (b), constitutes something of a special situation. The Commission notes that Guam has a substantial population originally from the T.T.P.I., and that the written law of the T.T.P.I. -. unlike the law of other foreign countries -. is not difficult to determine from Guam. At the same time, the Commission felt it unwise to validate as Guam wills any wills made in the T.T.P.I., because certain districts of the T.T.P.I. may have customary law concerning wills (e.g., permitting oral wills under some circumstances,) and such customary law is often extraordinarily difficult to prove. The Commission has thus provided subsection (b) as a middle ground: wills made in the T.T.P.I. under written T.T.P.I. law, and those made according to the provisions of this Title, are valid as wills in Guam, but no others.
As of October 1, 1994, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands ceased to exist. The Republic of Palau was that last TTPI entity to gain its new status of Free Association with the United States. Such status means that the entire TTPI is now recognized as independent in domestic affairs, and in most international affairs, as well.