Statutory Interpretation

In a question of first impression, the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that N.C.G.S. § 31-3.3 does not permit attesting witnesses to adopt signatures written entirely by a third party: because the statute expressly allows the testator to have another sign on his behalf but omits any similar provision for witnesses, the legislature’s intent is that witnesses must physically sign the will themselves, rendering invalid a revised will whose two witness signatures were written by the notary at the witnesses’ verbal direction while the witnesses never touched the pen.

In a first-impression decision, the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that N.C.G.S. § 31-3.3 bars attesting witnesses from having a third party write their signatures on a will, applying the expressio unius canon to the statute’s express testator proxy-signing provision and affirming summary judgment invalidating a revised will whose two witnesses never physically touched the pen.