Evidence to Arrive at Testamentary Intent. When there is an imperfect description in a will, or no person or property exactly answers the description in a will, mistakes and omis- sions must be corrected, if such error appears from the context of the will or from extrinsic evidence. When an uncertainty arises upon the face of a will, as to the application of any of its provisions, the testator's intention is to be ascertained from the words of the will or from extrinsic evidence, taking into view the circumstances under which the will was made. "Extrinsic evidence," as used in this Section, may include the oral declarations of the testator as to his testamentary intent, but such oral declarations may be considered only when no other evidence is available apart from the words of the will. SOURCE: Guam Law Revision Commission. COMMENT: Section 105 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970), like § 611, set out certain rules of construction for the interpretation of wills. The Commission is of the opinion that § 105 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970) was too restrictive as to what evidence the Court might consider, in that it prohibited the consideration of the testator's oral statements concerning his intentions. Similar concerns are voiced by Professor Lowell Turrentine in his AIntroduction to the California Probate Code,@ which appears in 52 West's Annotated California Codes, Probate Code, §§ 1 - 399, at p. 1 et seq. The Commission has thus drafted § 611, which allows the Court to consider a testator's declarations as to his intent, but only if that is the only
COL120106
evidence available going to that issue. That is, the Court must exhaust all other avenues and find them completely lacking before it may consider extrinsic evidence consisting of the testator's own declarations as to his intent.