Trimble v. Gordon

If a person dies intestate--that is, without a will, which provides for the distribution of property after death--his or her heirs have few protections regarding their inheritance. According to most state laws, the government will distribute the property purely according to other people's legal relation to the deceased.

A deceased person who has left a will is called a testator. There are a number of legal safeguards to protect the testator's heirs not only from the state, but from harmful provisions in the will. An example of the latter is the abundance of state statutes which establish a limit to the amount that a testator can leave to charity.

If an heir has reason to believe that the testator was not competent at the time of making the will, or that the will is a forgery or an otherwise faulty document, or that the testator did not intend the document to be a legally binding will, he or she may challenge the will in a probate court. On the other hand, the testator may disinherit a child in the will. In some states, children born or adopted after the making of the will may receive an intestate portion according to pretermitted heir statutes.