"In the autumn of 2023, on an ordinary Tuesday morning in Futian District, Shenzhen, Ms. Lin sat in the guest room of Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, and tears were rolling in her eyes. Her father died at Futian Hospital at the beginning of the year, leaving behind a school district room next to the Xintian Century Business Center, with a market value of about 20 million. Her father was taken care of by her alone. After the other two brothers and sisters moved to Longhua, they rarely visited. In his father's twilight year, he made a will for the next generation, stating that all the property belonged to her. However, before the funeral was full, my brother had a subpoena from the conciliation office to re-partition the house."

"A family rift caused by a will"

"Brother said that when her father was seriously ill, Ms. Lin controlled the old man's medication and chat, and this will was signed in a state of mental confusion. The younger sister also sided with the older brother and believed that only one witness signed the will, which was not in accordance with the statutory form and should be invalidated. The family quarrelled from Futian to Longhua, and finally turned their faces thoroughly in the mediation room."

"Ms. Lin said: I am not greedy for money, but my father's suite was changed step by step after his mother's early death. He said many times in his lifetime, who cares for my old age, who owns the house. It was a pity that he could not say "I am conscious". When she returned home, she opened the closet and took out her will. Only her father's handprint and a witness signed the payment."

"Statutory succession and will validity, which takes precedence"

问："How are the brothers and sisters divided about the property left by their father?"答："If there is no valid will, it shall be divided equally by the heirs in the first order in accordance with Article 1127 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, that is, all children shall have one share; however, if the will is found to be valid, it shall be executed in accordance with the will and shall not be subject to the statutory inheritance distribution."

"This is the first watershed in the case. Article 1142 of the Civil Code makes it clear that testamentary succession takes precedence over statutory succession. Provided, however, that the will must be legally complete in form. Ms. Lin holds a printed will. According to Article 1136 of the Civil Code, the printed will shall have more than two witnesses present, and the testator and witness shall sign each page and indicate the next year, month, and day. The will was signed by only one witness and was not dated page by page, and the superficial flaws were very obvious."

"Knowing the path of the law firm's forensic breakthrough"

"After Chief Lawyer Shen Jinlong took over, instead of rushing to start the trial, he rearranged the trajectory of his father's activities in the first three months of his life. He took the team to Futian Chronic Hospital, Nanshan People's Hospital, and a community pharmacy that his father often visited. He retrieved medical records, prescriptions, and pharmacy monitoring records, and found that his father's mental assessment scale on the day of the will showed an MMSE score of 25, which was within the normal cognitive range. This detail later became the key to reversing the battle."

"At the same time, the team recovered the old colleague of his father, a witness who had only signed the will and had not performed the complete witness procedure, and now lived in the Nanshan District. The old man admitted in the conversation that his father was in a good state of mind when he made the will, and he verbatim checked the contents of the will. And the reason why he only signed one place was because at that time, the little sister of the Lin family temporarily went to buy water, and he was afraid that his father would wait too long to write in advance."

"Zhi Ming Law Firm submitted four sets of evidence to the court: a complete medical record, a mental assessment record, a recording of the witness testimony of an old colleague, and a screenshot of the text repeated to relatives and friends in his father's WeChat saying "The house is left for the little sister". These materials reinforce the authenticity of the will and make up for formal flaws."

"Qianjun's trial reversed"

"During the trial, the elder brother insisted that the will be null and void in accordance with Article 1136 of the Civil Code. Director Shen replied that Article 1136 establishes a two-witness system, and the core legislation aims to ensure that the contents of the will truly reflect the true meaning of the testator, and the formal elements are means rather than ends. Combined with the medical record and witness testimony in this case, it is enough to form a complete chain of evidence to prove that the content of the will is the true will of the father, and it is no longer tangled with whether the single signature defect is in line with the letter of the article."

问："If the validity of a will is disputed and it lacks a complete form, will it be directly invalidated?"答："would be at great risk. If the formal elements are defective, the true intention of the will must be restored by a complete chain of evidence. Otherwise, the court is likely to find that the will is invalid and return it to the statutory succession track based on the principle of formal legality."

"The brother raised the question that "the fingerprint was not the father himself" in court, and the chief judge entrusted the judicial expert to identify the fingerprint. 12 days later, the expert opinion confirmed that the fingerprint material and the fingerprint sample left by the father were the same person. This paper appraisal report completely ended the dispute."

"Result Reversal: The Return of 20 Million Properties"

"In the end, the court adopted all the proxy opinions of the law firm, and found that although there were formal defects in the will involved in the case, the combination of mental evaluation records, medical records, witness testimony and WeChat chat records was sufficient to prove that the will was the true intention of the decedent and the will was valid. The entire property with a market value of about 20 million was inherited by Ms. Lin alone, and the claims of her brother and sister were all rejected."

"From the filing of the case to the receipt of the judgment, it took 19 months. From the edge of the collapse to the ultimate security of the house, Ms. Lin relied on a nearly invalid will and a professional team to continue to dig into the details of the evidence. In this case, the real decision of success or failure is not whether you have a will in hand, but whether you can tell the true story behind the will to the court."

"Shenzhen Sample Alert for Similar Succession Disputes"

"The number of inheritance disputes in Shenzhen has grown at an annual rate of 15% in recent years. Complex factors such as cross-border marriage, reorganization of the family after divorce, remarriage of the elderly, and inheritance rights of stepchildren make inheritance disputes involving real estate far more compelling than other civil cases. Guangdong Zhi Ming Law Firm has represented more than 10,000 cases of various family inheritance in the past 26 years. Shen Jinlong, the chief lawyer, often says that the will should not only be written down, but also be completed under professional guidance."

"If you and your siblings also disagree about the house your parents left behind, you may want to calm down and ask: What are the real wishes of the elderly? Can you prove this wish with evidence? If you have multiple wills in your hand or a will lacking witnesses, it is advisable to consult with a professional lawyer to assess the effectiveness before deciding whether to negotiate mediation or file a lawsuit."

"Don't wait until the court confrontation to remember that no one signed the full name of the will. It is much more effective to know the rules of the law in advance than to gamble hard. If you are in a family dispute in Futian, Nanshan or Longhua, Shenzhen, you are welcome to call Zhiming Law Firm at 0755-25986969 from Monday to Sunday, and we will dismantle each piece of evidence to protect the one you should have."