If a testator's will leaves $100,000 to a nephew and the remainder to two children, and one of the witnesses is the testator's daughter who would otherwise benefit, how is the probate estate distributed under the purging statute?

• A. Everything to the nephew.
• B. $100,000 to the nephew and the rest divided between the children.
• C. The two children get everything.
• D. One-half to the daughter, the rest to others.

Answer: (B)

The situation tests the purging statute: when a beneficiary who would otherwise gain under the will is also a witness to the will, that beneficiary’s gift is “purged” to prevent them from benefiting from their own attestation. In effect, the gift that would have gone to that interested witness is removed from the will’s plan, and the estate is distributed among the remaining beneficiaries as if that witness had not stood to benefit.

Here, the nephew is clearly a beneficiary of a fixed amount, and the remainder would have gone to two children. One of those children is the testator’s daughter, who is also a witness and would otherwise benefit. Because she would be an interested witness, her share in the remainder is purged. The net result is that the nephew keeps the $100,000, and the rest of the estate—the remainder that would have been split between the two children—is distributed between the remaining beneficiaries (the other child and the nephew) in the appropriate way dictated by the purging rule. In practice for this scenario, that means the nephew remains with the $100,000, and the rest is allocated to the two children as affected by the purge, yielding the distribution described: the nephew gets the fixed amount, and the remainder goes to the other beneficiaries (the two children) as allowed after purging the daughter’s anticipated share.