) No will shall be admitted to probate, or letters testamentary, letters of administration with the will annexed or letters of administration granted, or other proceeding had (except the ordering of a transfer as provided in subsection (b) of this Section), before any judge who is interested as an heir of the decedent, or as a legatee or devisee under such will, or when such judge is named as executor or trustee in such will, or is in any other manner interested or disqualified from acting. A judge who was a witness to a will is disqualified from acting in any proceeding prior to and including the admission of such will to probate or in any proceeding involving its validity or interpretation.

(b) When a petition is filed praying for the admission of a will to probate or for the granting of letters of administration with the will annexed or of letters of administration, or when proceedings are pending with respect to an estate, and the judge of the Superior Court of Guam before whom such petition or proceedings are pending is not qualified to act under the provisions of subsection (a) of this Section, such judge shall bring the fact of his disqualification to the attention of the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of Guam, who shall make an order assigning another judge of the Superior Court of Guam to act in the matter; provided, that if the judge so disqualified is the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of Guam, he shall bring the fact of his disqualification to the attention of the Judicial Council, which shall make an order assigning another judge of the Superior Court of Guam to act in the matter.

SOURCE: Probate Code of Guam (1970), § 303; Guam Law Revision
Commission.

COMMENT: Section 1407 has been divided into subsections and slightly rewritten, principally for the sake of complete clarity. Two minor substantive
changes have also been made: (1) In subsection (a), the words A…or is a witness
thereto@ have been deleted, and the second sentence added in their place. This will
allow a judge who witnessed a will to hear some, but not all, aspects of the probate of that will — briefly, such judge can sit concerning anything in which he was not
involved by having been a witness. (2) Under § 303 of the Probate Code of Guam
(1970), a disqualified judge always brought the matter of his disqualification to the

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Judicial Council, which would then assign another judge to hear the case; subsection (b) has been revised to provide a more streamlined procedure when the disqualified judge is not the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of Guam.

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