Cook v. Hamer

302 S.W.2d 680, 1957 Tex. App. LEXIS 1830
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 3, 1957
DocketNo. 15236
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 302 S.W.2d 680 (Cook v. Hamer) 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
Cook v. Hamer, 302 S.W.2d 680, 1957 Tex. App. LEXIS 1830 (Tex. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

CRAMER, Justice.

This suit involves the title to 40 acres of land owned by Josephine Cook in her lifetime. In June 1942, Josephine Cook made and duly executed a will leaving her estate (after payment of debts) as follows: All personal property to her nieces and nephews, Mary Hamer, Cornelius Hamer, Burch Hamer, Dalton Hamer, Raleigh Ha-mer, Florence Wylie, and Marie Grimes; a 40-acre tract of land in the T. L. Chen-oweth Survey in Dallas County to her brother Henry Cook; 53½ acres of land (two tracts of 26⅜ acres each) in the M. C. J. Bays 320-acre Survey in Collin County to her brother J. W. Cook; the south one-half of an 80-acre tract in the Mack J. Bays 320-acre Survey including improvements thereon to her brother Wesley Cook; to her nieces and nephews (not naming them) the north one-half of the 80 acres in the Mack J. Bays Survey described in deed from Jacob H. Cook et al to her, and providing that if any of the above parties predecease her, leaving child or children or their descendants, such survivor shall take the property willed to hi? or her father or mother, and that if any of such nieces or nephews die without leaving surviving child or children or their descendants, then their portion shall vest in those nieces and nephews who survive such deceased niece or nephew, share and share alike; that in case either of her named brothers predecease her, leaving surviving child or children or their descendants, then their portion shall vest in such surviving child or children or their descendants. She appointed her brother Henry Cook Independent Executor and provided no action in Probate Court be had on her estate.

Miss Cook survived all her brothers and when she died on July 18, 1954, she was survived by nineteen nieces and nephews. [682]*682Her will was filed for probate September 20, 1954 in Collin County and administration was pending when this suit was filed by fourteen of her nieces and nephews, in which suit the other nieces and nephews are defendants.

Appellants here are the children of Henry Cook; appellees are the children of Miss Cook’s sister and her other two brothers.

On trial in the District Court the jury found: (1) That Josephine Cook, testatrix, by her will of June 4, 1942, intended to divide her estate into four equal parts; (2) Josephine Cook, in designating specific parcels of land to the devises named, used this means of effecting an equitable four-way division of her property; (3) that the sale of four tracts of land by the guardian of Josephine Cook had the effect of nullifying her intent to so divide her property into four equal parts; (4) that Marlin Cook, individually and, as representative of his brother and sisters, appeared at a meeting in the Collin County Judge’s office about February 10, 1953; (5) that there was a mutual agreement between plaintiffs and defendants or their authorized representatives on February 10, 1953 in the office of the County Judge of Collin County to sell the five.tracts of land of Josephine Cook; (6) that except for such agreement plaintiffs would not have refrained from contesting said application and order of the court to sell said land; (7) that it was the intention of both plaintiffs and defendants or their authorized representatives by virtue of their agreement to create with her entire property a general fund for the care and support of Josephine Cook during her lifetime; (8) as a part of such agreement the balance of the property remaining after her death, after debts were paid, was to be divided into four equal parts for distribution to her devisees; (9) that $43,733.25 was spent for the care and benefit of Josephine Cook from the sale of four tracts of land belonging to her; (10) that $2,527.77 was spent for the care and benefit of Josephine Cook from the proceeds of the sale of personal property belonging to her; (11) that Marlin and Kyle Cook appeared at the meeting on or about July 20, 1954 in Roland Boyd’s office in Collin County as the authorized representatives of their sisters, Romaine Abbott, Gracie Abbott, and Jewell Lewis; (12) that the plaintiffs and defendants or their authorized representatives on or about July 20, 1954 made an oral agreement to waive the provisions of the will and divide the entire estate into four equal parts; and (13) that Marlin and/or Kyle Cook agreed on or about September 6, 1954, individually and as the authorized representatives of their three sisters, to divide the property into four parts and waive the provisions of the will, provided a written agreement to said effect was signed and duly acknowledged by plaintiffs and delivered to Roland Boyd on or before October 14, 1954. On such verdict and the evidence the trial court entered the judgment here appealed from and appellants have duly perfected this appeal, briefing eighteen points of error.

Points 1, 2 and 3, briefed together, assert (1) the evidence is insufficient to support the jury finding that Josephine Cook intended to make an equitable four-way division of her property; (2) the jury findings to issues 1, 2, and 3 are insufficient to support the judgment; and (3) the court erred in submitting questions of law to the jury in issues 1, 2, and 3. Appellees counter that (1) intent was an issue for the jury and the jury findings are supported by the evidence; (2) the evidence is sufficient to support the jury findings, and the trial court properly admitted Exhibits 6, 10, 21, 22, and 23; and (3) the trial court properly admitted into evidence appellees’ tender. It is now settled that courts can construe the will, first, by ascertaining the true intention of the testator from the four corners of the will itself and cannot reform it or correct the plain wording of the will by adding to or taking from such wording in the will any addition to the true intent of the testator where the identity and disposition of the property is plainly stated therein. Jackson v. Templin, Tex.Com.[683]*683App., 66 S.W.2d 666, 92 A.L.R. 873; City of Haskell v. Ferguson, Tex.Civ.App., 66 S.W.2d 491; Jones v. Hext, Tex.Civ.App., 67 S.W.2d 441; Pinkston v. Pinkston, Tex.Civ.App., 81 S.W.2d 196; Lake v. Copeland, 82 Tex. 464, 17 S.W. 786; Hassell v. Frey, 131 Tex. 578, 117 S.W.2d 413; Darragh v. Barmore, Tex.Com.App., 242 S.W. 714; Neely v. Brogden, Tex.Com.App., 239 S.W. 192.

The only question here is whether the will plainly expressed an intention on the part of the testatrix to divide her estate into for equal shares with the intention of specific items only for the purpose of being used as a general guide to effect an equitable four-way division rather than as specific devises to the four named beneficiaries. From the authorities we conclude that intent is a mental attitude made known by acts. It is an operation of the mind which in a given case is proved and found as a fact and ordinarily is not found as a matter of law and in our opinion here could not be found as a matter of law. The witness Grimes testified the deceased made the statement to him that “she divided it into four equal parts the best she knew how.” Witness Miss Neal Wylie testified the testatrix told her how she had divided the land, in substance that she divided it “just as near equal as she knew how.” That she attended the meeting in Mr.

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Related

Cook v. Hamer
309 S.W.2d 54 (Texas Supreme Court, 1958)

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Bluebook (online)
302 S.W.2d 680, 1957 Tex. App. LEXIS 1830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cook-v-hamer-texapp-1957.