(a)

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 32-3-115

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Personal representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Notwithstanding the requirements of a holographic will, a will may refer to a written statement or list to dispose of items of tangible personal property not otherwise specifically disposed of by the will, other than money, evidences of indebtedness, documents of title, securities, and property used in a trade or business.
(2) To be admissible under this section as evidence of the intended disposition, the writing:

(A) Must:

(i) Be either in the handwriting of the testator or signed by the testator;
(ii) Be dated; and
(iii) Describe the items and the devisees with reasonable certainty;
(B) May be prepared before or after the execution of the will;
(C) May be altered by the testator after its preparation, provided that the testator signs and dates the alteration; and
(D) May be a writing that has no significance apart from its effect upon the dispositions made by the will.
(3) If more than one (1) otherwise effective writings exist or a single writing contains properly signed and dated alterations, the provisions of the most recent writing or alteration revoke any inconsistent provisions of all prior writing.
(b) A personal representative is not liable for any distribution of tangible personal property to the apparent devisee under the testator’s will without actual knowledge of the written statement or list, as described in subsection (a), and the personal representative has no duty to recover property distributed without knowledge of the written statement or list.
(c) If the writing is admitted to the probate proceeding as permitted in subsection (a), the recipient or recipients of items distributed in accordance with the written list or statement shall file a receipt for the item or items received in accordance with § 30-2-707.
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