Alldridge v. Spell

774 S.W.2d 707, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 1743, 1989 WL 70848
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 27, 1989
DocketNo. 9658
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 774 S.W.2d 707 (Alldridge v. Spell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alldridge v. Spell, 774 S.W.2d 707, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 1743, 1989 WL 70848 (Tex. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

GRANT, Justice.

Virginia Spell Alldridge appeals from a judgment of the probate court denying her application for the probate of the will of her father, John T. Spell.

Alldridge applied to probate the will, executed by her father, John T. Spell, on December 10, 1986. John T. Spell’s widow, Marjorie, contested the will on the grounds of undue influence and lack of testamentary capacity. A jury determined that John T. Spell lacked testamentary capacity to execute the December 10th will, and it also found that Virginia Alldridge had incurred reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees in her efforts to probate the will in the amount of $10,500. The trial court entered judgment denying probate of the will but refused to award attorney’s fees to Alld-ridge.

Alldridge contends that the finding that John T. Spell lacked testamentary capacity was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence and further that there was no evidence showing that John T. Spell did not have testamentary capacity at the time he executed the will. She further contends that the trial court erred by refusing to enter judgment for her for reasonable attorney’s fees.

Spell died on March 6,1987, at the age of seventy-three. He had received a quadruple bypass in 1983, and he also suffered from diabetes, which was not medically regulated during 1986. On December 9, 1986, Spell had been diagnosed as having cancer, and thereafter he moved to Pear-land to live with his daughter, Virginia Alldridge. Prior to that time, he had lived with his wife, Marjorie, at Columbia Lakes. On December 10, 1986, Spell executed the will which is the subject matter of this litigation. He and Marjorie separated five days later on December 15, 1986, and she filed for a divorce on January 7, 1987. According to Marjorie, she filed for the divorce in order to obtain a temporary restraining order to prevent Virginia Alld-ridge and William Spell, children of John T. Spell, and Sherry Spell, John T. Spell’s daughter-in-law, from removing business records from her home.

In March 1985, John and Marjorie Spell had executed reciprocal wills whereby they left each other their entire estate. In the [709]*709event that Marjorie Spell predeceased John, his will provided that one half of his estate would go to his son and the other one half to his daughter. By codicil of July 3, 1985, Spell struck the provisions relating to Virginia Alldridge and William Spell.

On December 9, 1986, John T. Spell contacted his lawyer, Stanley McGee, about changing his will. The following day (December 10), Marjorie Alldridge drove him to Stanley McGee’s office but did not accompany him inside. McGee drafted the December 10th will, was named by Spell as executor and witnessed it. In this will, Spell devised his interest in a marine supply company to his son William and the remainder of his estate to his daughter, Virginia Alldridge. Subsequently, upon Spell’s death, McGee filed the application for the probate of the will.

McGee testified that he had received a telephone call on December 9th from Sherry Spell, and that Sherry told him that he should not prepare a will for John T. Spell because of Spell’s mental condition. McGee further testified that Spell was weak on the occasion in question, but that Spell was able to walk without assistance, that he was aware of what he was doing and that he had instructed McGee to make the changes in the will. McGee further testified that John T. Spell had the capacity to know the objects of his bounty and knew the nature and extent of his property.

Jane McGee, Stanley McGee’s wife and legal secretary, also witnessed the will. She testified that Spell understood what he was doing. Darlene Patton, McGee’s legal secretary, notarized the will, and although no oath was administered, she testified that Spell had requested the changes in the will and understood that he was executing the will.

The proponent of a will has the burden of establishing the testamentary capacity of the testator. Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55 (Tex.1983); Seigler v. Seigler, 391 S.W.2d 403 (Tex.1965). Since Alldridge had the burden of proof with respect to this issue she may not properly urge a no evidence point because the jury’s failure to find a fact need not be supported by evidence. See Stuckey v. Conveying Techniques, Inc., 753 S.W.2d 449 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1988, writ, denied); see also Cornelius, Appellate Review of Sufficiency Of the Evidence Challenges In Civil and Criminal Cases, 46 Tex.B.J. 439, 440 (1983). Alldridge styles and argues this issue as a no evidence point. An appellate court is not authorized to reverse a trial court’s judgment in the absence of properly assigned error. Central Education Agency v. Burke, 711 S.W.2d 7, 8 (Tex.1986); Mabe v. City of Galveston, 687 S.W.2d 769, 771 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1985, writ, dism’d).

In her second point of error, Alldridge contends that the finding that John Spell lacked testamentary capacity was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. Alldridge, as the proponent of the will had the burden of establishing the testamentary capacity of the testator, John T. Spell. See Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55; Seigler v. Seigler, 391 S.W.2d 403. For this type of sufficiency of the evidence challenge, courts will consider and weigh all of the evidence, and the jury’s finding will be upheld unless the evidence is so weak that the finding is manifestly erroneous or unjust. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660, 661 (1951); Jones v. LaFargue, 758 S.W.2d 320, 325 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1988, writ. denied).

Although the appropriate inquiry is the state of the testator’s mind on the date the will was executed, evidence concerning mental capacity is not limited to the time the act was done. Johnson v. Estate of Sullivan, 619 S.W.2d 232, 234 (Tex.Civ.App.-Texarkana 1981, no writ.); Chambers v. Chambers, 542 S.W.2d 901, 907 (Tex.Civ. App.-Dallas 1976, no writ.).

Stanley McGee, Jane McGee, and Darlene Patton each testified to establish Spell’s mental capacity on December 10, 1986, at the time he executed the will. (See discussion of facts, supra.) Additionally, the proponents of the will introduced a memorandum from Spell’s medical records made by Dr. J.C. Bums, Spell’s personal physician. The memorandum indicates [710]*710that it was made on December 11,1986, the day after the will was executed, and set forth that Spell was “oriented to time, person and place. He is competent to make decisions without assistance from anyone. His recent and past memory is excellent. In my best judgment he is sane.”

Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
774 S.W.2d 707, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 1743, 1989 WL 70848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alldridge-v-spell-texapp-1989.