Adams v. Cooper

96 S.E. 858, 148 Ga. 339, 1918 Ga. LEXIS 331
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 10, 1918
DocketNo. 517
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 96 S.E. 858 (Adams v. Cooper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Cooper, 96 S.E. 858, 148 Ga. 339, 1918 Ga. LEXIS 331 (Ga. 1918).

Opinion

Beck, P. J.

Warren S. Cooper, as the, executor named in the will of Julia Cone Catchings, filed a petition to the court of ordinary for the probate of the will. Several persons named as heirs of the testatrix filed a caveat, and urged, as grounds of' the caveat, that at the time of the execution of the instrument the testatrix was not of sound and disposing mind and memory; that the alleged will was not freely and voluntarily executed by the testatrix, but that she was moved thereto by undue influence exerted over her by Cooper, the propounder arid one of the beneficiaries under the will, and was further moved thereto by fraudulent practices upon her fears, affections, and sympathies; that Cooper continuously stated to testatrix that her heirs at law were hostile to her and were trying to deprive her of her property during her lifetime, and with that end in view had threatened to kill her," while he was her friend; that the execution of the instrument was procured by the misrepresentations of Cooper and others, to the injury of the heirs at law, as to the conduct of all the heirs of the testatrix; that testatrix was laboring under a mistake of fact, being under the impression that her heirs had no kindly feeling or affection for her but were hostile to her, and that they had endeavored to take her life by poison or other means; that the testatrix was laboring under an insane delusion, believing that her own blood and kin were hostile to her and were trying to deprive her of her life, and were threatening her and attempting to kill her for the purpose of getting her property. The case as thus made by the caveat was ap[341]*341pealed to the superior court, and upon the trial the jury found that the paper propounded as a will wg,s in fact the last will and testament of the testatrix. A motion for a new trial was made by the heirs, and upon the hearing it was overruled.

. 1. Over objection, the propounder was allowed to prove by a witness who was a member of the jury trying the issue upon an inquisition of lunacy, wherein the sanity of the testatrix was the subject-matter, some two or three years after the will was executed, that the jury returned a verdict to the effect that Julia Cone Catchings was of sound mind. It is not urged that there was not sufficient evidence of the loss of the verdict and record in that case, competent witnesses having given testimony tending to show that the proceedings had been lost. And we are of the opinion that evidence showing that the mind of the testatrix was sound two or three years after the execution, of the will was admissible as throwing light upon the question of her sanity at the date of the execution of the will. Field v. Lucas, 21 Ga. 447, 451 (68 Am. D. 465); Lucas v. Parsons, 23 Ga. 267; Slaughter v. Heath, 127 Ga. 747 (57 S. E. 69, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1). Had the jury trying the inquisition of lunacy found that two or three years after the execution of the will the testatrix was of unsound mind, it would be necessary to decide whether, under the ruling in Terry v. Buffington, 11 Ga. 337 (56 Am. D. 423), such testimony was admissible.

2. The court was requested in writing to charge the jury as follows: “Hnder these rules of law, if you believe that at the time of making the alleged will Miss Catchings was laboring under a mistake of fact that certain of her heirs at law had previously attempted to take her life and were still desirous of doing so; and if you further believe there was no foundation in fact for such belief, and the act of the decedent in making a will disinheriting her heirs at law and giving her property to strangers was the direct result of such a mistake of fact, you ought to sustain that ground of the caveat.” The court declined to give this charge as requested, and error is assigned upon this refusal. We do not think that the court erred in refusing the request, because the instruction thereby sought was, in substance, that the entire will would be void and not entitled to probate if the will was executed under a mistake as to the conduct of certain of the heirs, although it might not have been executed under a mistake of fact as to other heirs. Section [342]*3423836 of the Civil Code provides that “A will executed under a mistake of fact as-to the existence or conduct of the heirs at law of the testator is inoperative, so far as such heir is concerned, but the testator shall be deemed to have died intestate as to him.” Under this section a will executed under a mistake of fact as to the conduct of certain heirs is inoperative only as to the heirs about whose conduct the testator is laboring under a mistake. If, as in the present ease, there is more than one heir of the testatrix, and the testatrix was laboring under a mistake of fact as to one of them and on account of that mistake of fact excluded that heir from participation in her estate after her death, this might entitle such heir to.Jiave the will declared inoperative as to him, but it would not necessarily render the entire will void or inoperative.

3. But the court committed error in the charge by instructing the jury, in substance, that provisions of the will which had the effect-of disinheriting the testatrix’s heirs at law would be inoperative if the act of disinheriting her heirs at law was the direct result of a mistake of fact as to certain conduct of the. heirs, when he coupled with this instruction the proviso that such was the law if the jury believed “that the propounder, Warren S. Cooper, was responsible for creating in her mind such erroneous idea or belief, ór that he in any way encouraged her in such belief.” The effect of giving in charge the language of the proviso just quoted was to restrict too greatly the instruction as to the effect of a mistake existing in the mind of the testatrix as to the conduct of her heirs or some one of them at the time of the execution of the will. For, if the testatrix inserted a provision in the will, disinheriting one or more of her heirs, as a result of a mistake of fact as to the conduct of the disinherited heir or heirs, the clause of the will disinheriting the heir or heirs would be inoperative, whether that mistake was produced by the misrepresentations of Cooper, the propounder and a beneficiary under the will, or whether it grew out of misrepresentations made by other parties.

4. The court charged the jury as follows: “It is your duty to look carefully into the evidence to see whether or not those allegations have been sustained by the evidence. If the evidence fails to show that Warren S. Cooper exercised such undue influence over her and that this influence operated as a fraud at the time of the execution of the will, and also fails to show that he continuously and fraudulently repeated to her that her own blood and kin were' [343]*343hostile to her and were trying to deprive her of her property during her lifetime and were threatening to kill her, and such fraudulent misrepresentation and practice caused her to believe that Warren S. Cooper was her only friend and they were her enemies, and if the evidence shows these charges are not true, it would be your duty to find the issue against the caveators and in favor of Warren S. Cooper, the propounder of the will.” In view of the pleadings in the case and the language of the caveat, this charge affords the plaintiffs in error no ground of complaint.

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Bluebook (online)
96 S.E. 858, 148 Ga. 339, 1918 Ga. LEXIS 331, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-cooper-ga-1918.