Succession of Rowley

Louisiana Court of Appeal

Succession of Rowley

378 So. 2d 555, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 3379

CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal

DecidedDecember 11, 1979

DocketNo. 10819

StatusPublished

Cited by1 cases

This text of 378 So. 2d 555 (Succession of Rowley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Succession of Rowley, 378 So. 2d 555, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 3379 (La. Ct. App. 1979).

Pincite

Opinion

SCHOTT, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing the suit of Dorothy Rawley Davis in which she asserted that the January 9, 1976, last will and testament of decedent was invalid. The will was in the form authorized by LSA-R.S. 9:2442 and the issue is over the notary’s use of a scribbled set of circles or swirls on the superscription instead of a legible signature as he had used when he took his oath as a Notary Public several years before the will in question was written.

Copies of the document indicate clearly that the scribble used by the notary on this will is not the same as the signature he used on his oath and on other documents which appellant placed in evidence. However, the notary testified he signed the will with scribbled swirls and on other occasions in his career he used such a signature. In evidence and supporting this testimony are copies of documents executed by the notary in March of 1976 in which he used similar scribbled swirls as a signature.

Appellant has cited no authority for the proposition that a notary’s signature cannot be changed or that some official action must be taken by a notary before he can use a signature different than the one which he originally affixed to his oath of office. The trial judge’s conclusion that the scribbly swirls were sufficient to constitute a signature under the statute is supported by Succession of Butler, 152 So.2d 239 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1963), although that case was handed down prior to the 1964 amendments to R.S. 9:2442 and 2443.

Accordingly, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

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SCHOTT, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing the suit of Dorothy Rawley Davis in which she asserted that the January 9, 1976, last will and testament of decedent was invalid. The will was in the form authorized by LSA-R.S. 9:2442 and the issue is over the notary’s use of a scribbled set of circles or swirls on the superscription instead of a legible signature as he had used when he took his oath as a Notary Public several years before the will in question was written.

Copies of the document indicate clearly that the scribble used by the notary on this will is not the same as the signature he used on his oath and on other documents which appellant placed in evidence. However, the notary testified he signed the will with scribbled swirls and on other occasions in his career he used such a signature. In evidence and supporting this testimony are copies of documents executed by the notary in March of 1976 in which he used similar scribbled swirls as a signature.

Appellant has cited no authority for the proposition that a notary’s signature cannot be changed or that some official action must be taken by a notary before he can use a signature different than the one which he originally affixed to his oath of office. The trial judge’s conclusion that the scribbly swirls were sufficient to constitute a signature under the statute is supported by Succession of Butler, 152 So.2d 239 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1963), although that case was handed down prior to the 1964 amendments to R.S. 9:2442 and 2443.

Accordingly, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

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378 So. 2d 555, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 3379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-rowley-lactapp-1979.

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