Court Rules Man’s Selfie Video Filmed Days Before Death Isn’t a Valid Will

A court has ruled that a man’s selfie video — filmed four days before he was killed in a car crash — does not count as a will.

45-year-old heavy machine operator Jesse Beck was killed in a car crash on a highway in Carbon County, Montana on July 15, 2022.

Jesse died after he crashed his Harley motorbike on the highway and a first responder struck and killed both him and a bystander.

Four days before his death, Jesse filmed a selfie video on his smartphone in which he expressed his wish to leave all of his possessions to his brother Jason in the event of his passing.

“If anything happens to me whatsoever, I give all of my possessions — everything — to Jason Beck, my brother,” Jesse said on camera in the footage he filmed of himself.

However, when Jesse died days later, his only child Alexia Beck — whom he didn’t mention in the video — was appointed as the personal representative of his estate.

His brother Jason later sought to probate the video as Jesse’s will, arguing it should be considered a “valid testamentary document.”

However, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in October that Jesse’s video recording, “while undoubtedly expressing testamentary intent,” did not count legally as a will.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled that the video recording did not meet the statutory requirements for a will which implies that a “document” must be a physical or digital file capable of being signed and witnessed. The court says that a video recording, such as Jesse’s selfie footage, therefore does not fulfill these requirements.

As the late Jesse’s video does not count as a will, Jason can not be the heir to his estate. Instead, Jesse’s daughter Alexia will inherit his estate, which includes a wrongful death claim of up to $750,000 at stake.

“If Jesse had written it on a napkin that would have been good enough,” Jesse’s brother tells the news outlet.” That’s crazy to me that that beats him actually saying it,”

Written Word Over Video

The case highlights that while most Americans rely on digital methods like filming videos and taking photos, the written word can still hold supreme authority in the eyes of the law. And in many cases, the law sometimes does not recognize digital formats at all.

In the case of Jesse, the Montana Supreme Court noted that there was no legislative or judicial precedent for recognizing non-written video wills under the current legal code.

According to The Wall Street Journal, many Americans are unaware that video and audio recordings don’t qualify as legal or business documents. Some experts believe that the law needs to evolve to accept digital formats.

“It’s a fool’s errand to tenaciously claim that everything has to be on paper. This isn’t the time of Charles Dickens,” Chuck Borek, general counsel at FreeWill, an online will provider, tells the publication.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Jesse’s wrongful death claim is pending and his daughter Alexia Beck declined to comment.

 
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.