Anderson v. Kendrick

165 N.W. 732, 199 Mich. 240
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 27, 1917
DocketDocket No. 10
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 165 N.W. 732 (Anderson v. Kendrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Kendrick, 165 N.W. 732, 199 Mich. 240 (Mich. 1917).

Opinion

Kuhn, C. J.

Rose Hewitt died in the city of Jackson on January 27, 1911. The record does not disclose her exact age, but it does appear that she was upwards of 80 years of age. She had lived alone for many years, and was a widow during the last 30 years [242]*242of her life. Her estate consisted of a lot on which stood two frame houses, in one of which she had lived. She also had some money in the bank, amounting to about $3,270, and also some cash, $500 of which was found in her house and removed therefrom before her death.

The will in question was executed on the 20th day of January, 1911, at a time when Mrs. Hewitt was in a boarding house, to which she had been removed from the City Hospital by George Anderson and his wife, who are charged, with others, with procuring the will by undue influence and fraud at a time when testatrix was ’too weak, physically and mentally, to transact the business. The will, which was offered for probate, practically gives all of her property to Mrs. Anderson.

When the will was offered for probate, Sarah Kendrick and her three sisters, Mary Kendrick, Annie Neal, and Julia Morresen, nieces of the deceased, and their cousin, James Finnegan, interposed objections, and contested its probate on the ground of the mental incompetency of the deceased; also that the deceased had been unduly influenced to execute the will by Mr. and Mrs. Anderson and J. C. Kugler, a physician in attendance, and that the deceased was possessed of an insane delusion in regard to Sarah Kendrick. The will was denied probate by the judge of probate, and upon appeal these issues were tried before a jury in-the circuit court. At the close of the testimony the proponent moved that the court direct a verdict in her favor on the ground, substantially, that there was no evidence introduced to sustain any of the claims of the contestants; that is, that the testatrix was mentally incompetent, that there had been any undue influence exercised upon her with reference to the execution of this will, or that she was possessed of an insane delusion which affected the instrument in question. The motion was denied by the trial judge, and [243]*243the three issues were submitted to the jury, who found, as the probate judge had previously found, that the paper offered was not the last will of Mrs. Hewitt.

The question argued at great length in the brief ■of counsel for the appellant and also at the oral argument is that there was not sufficient testimony to go to the jury upon the questions of incompetency, undue influence, and insane delusions, and that the court erred in not directing a verdict in favor of proponent, as requested. This question has made necessary a critical examination of the entire- record, and it is impossible within the purview of a written opinion to attempt to review all the testimony upon the questions here in issue. Such, however, will be referred to as we think necessary to understand the questions involved. In approaching this discussion it should be borne in mind, however, that the testimony must be considered in the light most favorable to the contestants’ claim.

■ Sarah Kendrick, the niece, did not reside in the city of Jackson, but it is her claim that she had been to see her aunt on various occasions, and came to Jackson on the 23d of December, 1910, at the solicitation of her aunt. At that time she stopped at her sister’s and the home of a friend named Maggie Fallon, w|iere she was taken sick with bronchitis, and after she recovered from this, on or about the 5th day of January, 1911, she went to the home of her aunt, and found that she also was sick, and saw a doctor, and after some discussion took her to the City Hospital at Jackson for treatment.

We think that the testimony is quite conclusive that Mrs. Hewitt was an eccentric person, and appeared especially to be so with reference to her property matters. When she was taken to the hospital, her niece wanted her to place her money and bank book in the hospital safe, but this she refused to do, and turned [244]*244them over to her niece to keep. Neither would she allow the nurses to bathe her, and insisted upon the niece remaining in the hospital with her, but which it was found impracticable for the niece to do, and it' is her claim that she called every day until she was again taken ill.

While in the hospital, on January 9th, an attorney by the name of Curtis was called to prepare a will. He found that the deceased was possessed with an idea that her niece had taken $500 of her money, and that therefore she would only give her $100. in the will. It appears from the testimony of Mr. Curtis that she was in a confused state of mind concerning the amount of money she had and seemed unable to distinguish between half a hundred and half a thousand, and when he explained to her that there was $50 in gold in her purse which she had in her possession she stated to him that her niece therefore had not taken the money, and that she would give her $1,000. The will was drawn, and made such a provision, and also gave the house and lot to her nephew, Edward Finnegan, and $100 to a boy she claimed she had brought up, and the remainder of the property went to certain local charitable institutions.

It is the claim of the contestant Sarah Kendrick that she was taken ill on January 12th, and therefore could not visit the hospital, and that on the following day Mrs. Anderson visited the deceased, and, without consulting the hospital authorities or any of deceased’s relatives, called in her own physician, Dr. Kugler, and arranged to remove Mrs. Hewitt from the hospital to her husband’s boarding house, which, it is Mrs. Anderson’s claim, was done at the urgent request of the deceased, on the 16th of January. It is the claim of the contestants that from that time on the attitude of Mrs. Hewitt changed entirely, and that she thereafter refused to have anything to do with her niece, [245]*245and it is their claim that the Andersons refused to permit her old friends to see her, that Miss Fallon, whom deceased had requested while at the hospital to call on her, was refused admission, and likewise Mrs. Seaman, an old friend who had written letters for her, testified that she was not allowed to see her when she called at the Anderson house.

On the 19th of January, Mr. Anderson called upon Mr. Noon, an attorney of the city of Jackson, to come to his home to draw some papers for Mrs. Hewitt. Mr. Noon testified that Anderson told him Mrs. Hewitt had several thousand dollars in the bank, and said:

“What kind of a paper can be drawn up or what can be done so the money can be turned over to us or so the old lady can obtain it?”

—that he was called into the sick room, and there found Mrs. Hewitt in such a physical condition that he refused to draw any papers. He described her condition and appearance to be:

“She looked very small. Her face was naturally small, and she looked very ill and sallow, and the face gave evidence of physical distress. She looked like a dying person. That’s about the only way I can say it, Mr. Reece. I guess I was about three or four feet from her, as close as that. I am sure she did not know of my presence there. She didn’t say a word to me. I was not introduced to her. Nobody said anything to her about my being there.”

—and that he told Mr. Anderson that her condition was such that he would not draft any papers, and that Mr. Anderson replied, “She is in very bad shape,” or, “She is very bad.” The next day Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
165 N.W. 732, 199 Mich. 240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-kendrick-mich-1917.