In re Estate of Frank C. Tong

Opinion by JUDGE KIRSHBAUM Proponent, Frank S. Tong, appeals an order of the trial court refusing admission to probate of two instruments and denying claimant's request to exhume the body of decedent, Frank C. Tong, for purposes of an autopsy. We affirm the denial of the admission of the documents to probate, reverse the denial of the request for exhumation, and remand the cause for further proceedings. The record reveals that the two documents in question are identical in content; that each was dated January 10, 1975; and that each was executed by decedent, witnessed by the same two witnesses, and verified by the same notary public on the same day. One of the documents contains original typing; the other is a carbon copy of the original. On March 7, 1979, decedent wrote the following statement on the face of the executed carbon copy: This Last Will & testament is now null, & void.... The executed carbon copy also contains numerous obliterations. The original, which was not in decedent's possession at his death, contains no similar language or obliterations.