Breeden v. Stone
Supreme Court of Colorado
992 P.2d 1167 (Colo. 2000)
Two days after causing a fatal hit-and-run accident, Spicer Breeden wrote a brief holographic will leaving everything to Sydney Stone (respondent) before committing suicide, replacing an earlier formal 1991 will and codicil that had left his estate to different people and excluded Stone, his father, sister, and brother (petitioners). The petitioners challenged the holographic will for lack of testamentary capacity, presenting evidence Breeden had used cocaine and alcohol heavily, including on the night of his death, and suffered mood swings and paranoid fears; handwriting experts found his writing unremarkable, and friends testified he had long planned to exclude his family. The probate court found Breeden had testamentary capacity and admitted the will to probate, and the challengers appealed.
Whether a will must be set aside for lack of testamentary capacity when the testator suffered insane delusions at the time of execution, but those delusions did not affect the distribution of the estate and the testator was otherwise of sound mind.