NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1979 SESSION
CHAPTER 536
HOUSE BILL 239
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS EXECUTION AND SELF‑PROVEMENT OF AN ATTESTED WRITTEN WILL AND TO PROVIDE THAT WILLS PREVIOUSLY EXECUTED AND SELF-PROVED SIMULTANEOUSLY ARE VALID.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. 31-11.6 as the same appears in the 1977 Cumulative Supplement to Volume 2A of the General Statutes is hereby amended: on lines two and three by deleting the words "at the time of its execution or at any subsequent date" and inserting in lieu thereof the words "at any time subsequent to its execution"; and by designating the last sentence of the existing provisions as subsection "(c)" and by designating the remainder of the existing provisions as amended as subsection "(b)" and by adding a new subsection "(a)" to read as follows:
"(a) In addition to the procedures for the execution of a will set out in G.S. 31-3.3, any will may be simultaneously executed, attested, and made self-proved, by acknowledgment thereof by the testator and affidavits of the witnesses, each made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of the state where execution occurs and evidenced by the officer's certificate, under official seal, in substantially the following form:
'I,_____, the testator, sign my name to this instrument this _____ day of _____, 19__ and being first duly sworn, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I sign and execute this instrument as my last will and that I sign it willingly (or willingly direct another to sign for me), that I execute it as my free and voluntary act for the purposes therein expressed, and that I am eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.
_______________
Testator
We _____,_____, the witnesses, sign our names to this instrument, being first duly sworn, and do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that the testator signs and executes this instrument as his last will and that he signs it willingly (or willingly directs another to sign for him), and that each of us, in the presence and hearing of the testator, hereby signs this will as witness to the testator's signing, and that to the best of our knowledge the testator is eighteen years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence.
_______________
Witness
_______________
Witness
The State of _________
County of _________
Subscribed, sworn to and acknowledged before me by _____ the testator and subscribed and sworn to before me by _____ and _____, witnesses, this _____ day of _____.
(Seal)(Signed)_________
_____________________
(Official capacity of officer)'".
Sec. 2. The execution of an acknowledgment of a will by a testator, and of the affidavits of witnesses, made before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the laws of this State and evidenced by the officer's certificate substantially in the form set out in G.S. 31-11.6 during the period between October 1, 1977 and October 1, 1979 shall be considered to be a valid execution and attestation of a written will even though the will was not signed and attested under the provisions of G.S. 31-3.3 separately from the execution of the acknowledgment by the testator and the affidavits of the witnesses. Such wills may be probated in accordance with G.S. 31-18. 1(a)(4).
Sec. 3. Section 1 of this act shall become effective on October 1, 1979. Section 2 of this act shall become effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 9th day of May, 1979.