Chief Justice Leaves Poorly Prepared Will

Warren Burger, once the nation’s highestranking judge, prepared a “woefully inadequate” will before he died, and it could cost his heirs plenty. The legal tangle is a cautionary tale for those Americans who have avoided proper estate planning.

“This really is a sad example,” said lawyer George W. Dodge in Arlington, Va. “Burger’s estate of $1.8 million may face federal and state taxes of over $450,000. He possibly could have avoided all that.”

Burger, who served as the nation’s chief justice longer than anyone this century, retired in 1986. He died last June at age 87.

Just after his wife died in 1994, Burger used a computer to type a one-page will leaving one-third of his estate to his daughter, Margaret, and two-thirds to his son, Wade.

It appears the ex-chief justice prepared the will hastily, not bothering to check his spelling.

The document named Wade Burger and J. Michael Luttig, a federal appellate judge and a former law clerk and special assistant to Burger, as executors but misspelled the designation once as “exeuctors.”

More importantly, the document did not grant the executors power to sell Burger’s real estate.

“That omission means they need a probate court’s permission to dispose of the property. We’re talking about unnecessary attorney fees and court costs,” Dodge told The Associated Press.

In an article published in the Arlington County Bar Association Journal, Dodge called the will woefully inadequate.

The article noted the will also failed to waive bond or surety, making it necessary to get a bonding company to insure the executors against claims of negligence.

ASSOCIATED PRESS