Cecil v. Cecil

611 N.E.2d 1278, 243 Ill. App. 3d 506, 183 Ill. Dec. 630, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 271
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 2, 1993
DocketNo. 1-91-1823
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 611 N.E.2d 1278 (Cecil v. Cecil) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cecil v. Cecil, 611 N.E.2d 1278, 243 Ill. App. 3d 506, 183 Ill. Dec. 630, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 271 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

JUSTICE SCARIANO

delivered the opinion of the court:

Petitioners, the sole heirs at law besides co-respondent Daniel M. Cecil (Daniel), brought this action to contest the validity of the last will and testament of the decedent, Stanley Ciesiolkiewicz. Count I of the petition alleges that decedent lacked the testamentary capacity to execute the will. Count II claims that the will is invalid because Daniel, decedent’s nephew, the sole beneficiary and co-executor under the will, exerted undue influence over decedent. Petitioners requested a jury trial on both counts; the trial court, however, granted respondents’ motion for summary judgment as to both counts, and petitioners appeal from that judgment.

In support of their motion for summary judgment, respondents submitted affidavits from Daniel and Alfreda Farber (Farber), co-executors of the will; Herman Beyer (Beyer) and Marianne Brown (Brown), the two witnesses to the will; and Edward Krzyminski (Krzyminski), the attorney who prepared it. These affidavits set forth the following facts. Decedent, suffering from acute leukemia and diabetes mellitus, was brought to the emergency room of Mercy Hospital and Medical Center around midnight on May 14, 1987. After examination by hospital personnel, he was admitted as an inpatient and hospitalized until May 22. Decedent returned to the hospital on May 28 and died there on June 2.

In early May 1987, decedent hired Krzyminski to draft a deed conveying a parcel of real estate which he owned to Daniel. Krzyminski had known decedent socially for about one year before he requested his services. Krzyminski also had performed some legal services for Daniel concerning an accident case in April 1987. In addition, Krzyminski and Daniel worked for the same company; Krzyminski was an officer while Daniel was a salesman.

Krzyminski was in the process of preparing the deed for decedent when Daniel, on either May 15 or 16, informed him that his uncle was hospitalized and wanted to discuss other legal matters with Krzyminski. Krzyminski brought the finished but unsigned deed with him when he visited decedent at the hospital on May 16. When he arrived at the hospital, Krzyminski found Daniel and Farber in the room along with decedent. After decedent reviewed and executed the deed, he told Krzyminski that he wanted him to prepare his will; however, before discussing the matter any further decedent asked Daniel to leave the room, which he did. At decedent’s request, Farber remained in the room.

After Daniel left the room, Krzyminski began interviewing decedent, taking notes detailing the provisions decedent asked to have included in his will. Decedent told him that he did not have a prior will and gave him a detailed account of his property, all of which he desired to bequeath to Daniel. At this point, Farber asked decedent if he wanted to leave any of his property to anyone other than Daniel; decedent rejected this suggestion and reiterated his desire to bequeath everything to Daniel. Krzyminski stated that he later drafted the will, following decedent’s instructions. He did not disclose the terms of the will to anybody except his wife, who also served as his part-time secretary.

On May 18, 1987, Krzyminski returned to the hospital with the completed will for decedent’s review. Decedent initially read the will to himself, and then he reviewed it paragraph by paragraph with Krzyminski. After Krzyminski was satisfied that decedent understood the terms of the will, decedent told him that he wanted to sign it. Krzyminski then asked some members of the hospital staff if they would serve as witnesses, but he was informed that hospital policy prohibited employees from attesting to patients’ wills. Krzyminski suggested to decedent that two mutual friends, Beyer and Brown, could witness the execution of the will. Decedent concurred, and Krzyminski arranged for Beyer and Brown to come to the hospital.

When the witnesses arrived later that day, they found decedent in good spirits, and they talked about business and social matters. Eventually, the group began to execute the will. Decedent identified the will, and Beyer and Brown watched him sign each page of it. Thereafter, Beyer and Brown signed the will in decedent’s presence and in the presence of each other, and Krzyminski then notarized the will.

Both of the witnesses attested that decedent was mentally alert, that he signed the will with his own hand, that he acted deliberately and without prompting, and that he knew exactly what he was doing. Krzyminski, Beyer and Brown all stated that Daniel was not present when the will was executed, and Daniel also stated in his affidavit that he knew nothing of the contents of the will until after his uncle’s death.

With their reply to respondents’ motion for summary judgment, petitioners submitted affidavits of medical personnel which elicited the following facts. Erica Heit, M.D., stated that when she examined him on May 15, decedent “had an onset of mental confusion [the day before] with progressive confusion and the onset of incontinence.” She concluded that based on her examination of decedent, he was, at that time, “mentally impaired and experiencing acute mental status changes such that he could not make decisions for himself that could be relied upon by others.”

Keith Meredith Ashby, M.D., stated that when he examined decedent on May 15, he was “exhibiting acute mental status changes with focal seizure activity *** [and] experiencing] progressive confusion, and a new onset of incontinence.” Dr. Ashby concluded that decedent “was mentally impaired and experiencing mental status changes.”

Pedro Lopez, M.D., stated that throughout decedent’s period of hospitalization between May 15 and May 22, decedent “exhibited varying degrees of mental impairment.” Dr. Lopez also related that one of his nurse’s notes indicated that decedent had pulled his catheter tube from his bladder through his penis with the inflated balloon still intact. He opined that “this is something a patient who is free of mental impairment would not do.” Finally, Dr. Lopez stated that decedent “was mentally impaired and experiencing mental status changes such that he could not competently make decisions for himself that could be relied upon by others.”

Susan Mason, R.N., stated that during decedent’s week-long stay-in the hospital, he was “disoriented from time to time” and that “his mental status was unreliable.” She also indicated that during the day on which decedent’s will was executed, his “judgment was clouded and he was unable to care for himself.” Mason also stated that about three or four days after decedent was hospitalized, Daniel asked her rather adamantly to witness decedent’s will. She stated that during some periods during the day on which the will was signed, Daniel was in the room with his uncle; she also stated, however, that a will was never mentioned while she and Daniel were present in the room.

After considering these affidavits and hearing oral argument, the trial court granted respondents’ motion for summary judgment on both counts of the petition. Petitioners now appeal that decision.

I

The purpose of summary judgment is to determine if there are any genuine issues of triable fact. (Purtill v. Hess (1986), 111 Ill. 2d 229, 240, 489 N.E.2d 867

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Related

In Re Estate of Ciesiolkiewicz
611 N.E.2d 1278 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
611 N.E.2d 1278, 243 Ill. App. 3d 506, 183 Ill. Dec. 630, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cecil-v-cecil-illappct-1993.