Morris v. West's Estate
Texas Court of Appeals
643 S.W.2d 204 (1982)
C.K. West's will gave one-third of his estate to Jackson Morris (plaintiff), his daughter's ex-husband, while omitting his grandson Patrick; the two witnesses watched West sign the will in a conference room but then walked down a hallway, past another office, to a secretary's office to sign the attestation clauses themselves while West remained behind in the conference room. West's daughter Lorraine and grandson Patrick (defendants) objected to probate, and a jury found the witnesses were not in West's presence when they signed, leading the trial court to deny probate; Morris appealed, arguing the witnesses were in West's presence as a matter of law since they were in the same office suite and West could have seen them with minimal effort.
Whether, where the law requires witnesses to a testator's will to sign their names in the presence of the testator, the will is valid if the witnesses sign in a separate room from the testator.