Also known as: revocatory acts · revoking act · act of revocation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A physical act performed on a will with the intent and for the purpose of revoking the will or part of it. The act must be carried out by the testator or by another person in the testator's conscious presence and at the testator's direction. Qualifying acts include burning, tearing, canceling, obliterating, or destroying the will or any part of it.
Rina Rahman executed a will dividing her estate among her three children. After a heated argument with her eldest son over the distributions, she retrieved the document and threw it into the fireplace, watching it burn completely to ashes. Because she performed the burning with the purpose of ending the will's effect, the instrument was revoked by physical act.
Ravi Reddy first executed a will leaving his business to his daughter. He later signed a new will that replaced the earlier one entirely. After a disagreement with the daughter, he tore the second will in half with the intent to revoke it. The tearing revoked the second will, but the first will remained revoked because nothing showed that Reddy intended the earlier instrument to take effect again.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
No. A burning, tearing, or canceling qualifies as a revocatory act whether or not the damage reaches any of the printed words. The statute focuses on the act performed on the document itself together with the testator's intent to revoke.
Supporting sources
Yes. The statute permits revocation of a will or any part of it by a revocatory act performed with the required intent. When the act affects only selected provisions, only those provisions are revoked and the remainder of the will stays in force.
Supporting sources
The earlier will remains revoked unless circumstances or the testator's declarations show an intent to revive it. Revival requires affirmative evidence that the testator wanted the first will to operate again.
Supporting sources
No. The statute requires only that the testator act with intent to revoke. The act may occur when the testator is alone, and no witnesses are needed for the physical revocation itself.
Supporting sources
…in either case, an interest inchoate and contingent till rendered absolute and consummate through receipt or accrual before the act of revocation. Congress did not mean that recurring instalments of the income, payable under a revocable conveyance which had been made by a settlor before the passage of this statute, should be exempt,…