Duke v. Falk

463 S.W.2d 245, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2757
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1971
Docket11784
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 463 S.W.2d 245 (Duke v. Falk) 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
Duke v. Falk, 463 S.W.2d 245, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2757 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

This lawsuit contests a will, made by the testator when he was ninety-three years old, on the ground that the maker was without testamentary capacity.

Daisy Hughes, the testator, was a black man who, as a youth, came to Texas by *247 wagon from Birmingham, Alabama, in the company of Festus Hughes, a white youth, on a journey that took six months. The two Hughes boys had lived as neighbors in Alabama and on coming to Texas settled on adjoining farms at Joliet in southern Caldwell county near Lockhart. Their close friendship continued as long as both lived, the two living as neighbors, working together, and visiting back and forth in their two homes.

In September, 1965, Daisy Hughes made a will, known in probate law as a self-proving will, in the office of a Lockhart lawyer, with two witnesses, and with acknowledgments taken by a notary public as required by law. Daisy Hughes at the time of making the will and at his death did not have a living wife, child, or brothers and sisters. His only kin were numerous nieces and nephews. Under the will Daisy Hughes left all his property, which included a farm consisting of about 64 acres, to his nieces and nephews, except a tract of ten acres which he carved out of the farm and devised to Ina Beth Falk, the only daughter of his life-long friend, Festus Hughes. Daisy Hughes had known Ina Beth all of her life, and she had cooked meals for him and her father on occasion when the two men were working together. The ten-acre tract had a small producing oil well on it in which Daisy Hughes had a royalty interest that paid $48 a month.

Daisy Hughes died September 18, 1966, about a year after making his will, and after becoming 94 years of age. The will was filed for probate May 10, 1967, by Odessa Brown, the Independent Executrix named in the will. No contest of the will was filed in county court, and the will was admitted to probate May 22, 1967.

Willie Duke and Gillis Duke, who were sons of a niece of Daisy Hughes, brought suit in September, 1967, in county court to set aside the order of probate, naming the designated independent executrix and Ina Beth Falk as defendants. After trial in December, 1967, the county court denied the petition for cancellation of the will and probate order. Petitioners appealed to the district court, carrying forward two grounds for cancellation of the will and order of probate. The grounds were undue influence and lack of testamentary capacity.

Upon jury findings that Daisy Hughes, at the time he made his will, had testamentary capacity and was not under undue influence, the district judge entered judgment February 9, 1970, approving and validating the order of probate, ordering the will probated, and appointing Odessa Brown independent executrix.

From that judgment, the contestants bring this appeal under two points of error: (1) that the finding of testamentary capacity was “against the greater weight and preponderance of the evidence” and (2) that the court erred in excluding a letter to Odessa Brown from Fred C. Hughes which had been offered by contestants to impeach Odessa Brown.

The judgment of the district court will be modified, in the manner later specified, and as modified will be affirmed.

We consider first the point urged that the district court erred in not permitting contestants to impeach Odessa Brown by introduction of a letter from Fred C. Hughes to the witness.

Odessa Brown, who was related by marriage to Daisy Hughes, first was called upon to keep house and cook for the elderly man and later became guardian of his person and estate by appointment of the county court.

Appellants state, “The purpose of introducing the letter [of Fred C. Hughes] was to impeach the testimony of Odessa Brown and show that she had been greatly concerned about the matter of Daisy Hughes having been carried to Lockhart to get a will executed.”

Odessa Brown testified that she heard that Daisy Hughes had made a will, after she had been appointed his guardian, and *248 that she notified Willie Duke, one of the contestants, who lived in Hillsboro. Duke went to Lockhart, and Odessa Brown went with Duke to see the lawyer who had prepared the guardianship papers and discussed the will with him. The lawyer advised them that until Daisy Hughes died nothing could he done about any will he might have made.

Odessa Brown was shown a copy of a letter, purportedly from Fred C. Hughes to her, in which it was indicated that Hughes learned of the will from Odessa Brown and in which he expressed some concern about the making of the will. The record shows that Fred C. Hughes, a white man living in San Antonio, was a cousin of Ina Beth (Hughes) Falk. The letter did not disclose whether Fred Hughes knew what disposition of property was made in the will. Odessa Brown testified that she had told Fred C. Hughes about hearing that Daisy Hughes had made a will.

Since Odessa Brown testified that she was so concerned about the will that she got in touch with Willie Duke at Hillsboro and then went with him to see a lawyer, and that she had also told Fred C. Hughes about the will, we find no basis for impeachment for the purpose of “showing that she had been greatly concerned about the matter.” Odessa Brown freely admitted her concern. Moreover, appellants failed to identify the letter, or a copy of it, sufficiently to lay a predicate for introduction of the letter. Odessa Brown testified she had received two or three letters, from time to time, from Fred C. Hughes, and that she had shown one letter, in which the will was mentioned, to Willie Duke when he came to her home. But at no time did Odessa Brown identify the copy shown her in court as that of the letter from Fred C. Hughes mentioning the will. Fred C. Hughes was not called as a witness to identify the original letter or a copy. No proof was made that the original letter was not available.

The trial court properly excluded copy of the Hughes letter tendered for the purpose of impeaching Odessa Brown, and the point of error relating to this action is overruled.

The main onset of contestants is that Daisy Hughes, because of his advanced age, did not have mental capacity to make a will in September, 1965, and that the finding of the jury to the contrary is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.

Appellants rely upon testimony that Daisy Hughes was “in a bad stage,” having difficulty keeping up with his money, complaining about people taking his property from him, and at times being unable to recognize his own kin, the nieces and nephews.

In considering whether the finding by the jury that Daisy Hughes did have testamentary capacity on the date he executed the will is a finding against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence, we must weigh the evidence supporting the verdict along with other evidence in the case, including that which is contrary to the verdict. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1952); Harrison v. Chesshir, 159 Tex. 359, 320 S.W.2d 814 (1959).

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Bluebook (online)
463 S.W.2d 245, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2757, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duke-v-falk-texapp-1971.