In Re Neville

67 S.W.3d 522, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 822, 2002 WL 126345
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 30, 2002
Docket06-00-00168-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 67 S.W.3d 522 (In Re Neville) 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
In Re Neville, 67 S.W.3d 522, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 822, 2002 WL 126345 (Tex. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Chief Justice CORNELIUS.

In this will contest, Charles Neville and Paulette Knapp appeal from the trial court’s judgment which held that Verdie Neville did not have testamentary capacity on July 9, 1998, at the time she signed a will, and ordered that a will Verdie Neville executed in 1992 should be admitted to probate instead of her 1998 will. Charles Neville and Knapp contend that the evidence is factually and legally insufficient to support the trial court’s finding that Ver-die Neville lacked testamentary capacity when she executed the will of July 9, 1998.

*524 In order to make a valid will, Verdie Neville must have been of sound mind when she signed the will. See Tex. Prob. Code Ann. § 88(b)(1) (Vernon 1980). Texas courts define the term “sound mind” to mean “testamentary capacity.”

Testamentary capacity means sufficient mental ability to understand the business in which the testatrix is engaged, the effect of her act in making the will, and the general nature and extent of her property. The testatrix must be able to know her next of kin and the natural objects of her bounty, and she must have a sufficient memory to collect in her mind the elements of the business to be transacted and to hold them long enough to at least perceive their obvious relation to each other and be able to form a reasonable judgment about them. Bracewell v. Bracewell, 20 S.W.3d 14, 19 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, no pet.); In re Estate of Jernigan, 793 S.W.2d 88, 89 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1990, no writ); Lowery v. Saunders, 666 S.W.2d 226, 232 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1984, writ refd n.r.e.). As proponents of the July 9, 1998 will, Charles Neville and Knapp had the burden to show that Verdie Neville had the requisite testamentary capacity on July 9, 1998, the day she signed the will. See Guthrie v. Suiter, 934 S.W.2d 820, 829 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1996, no writ).

When an appellant attacks the legal sufficiency of an adverse fact finding on an issue for which he had the burden of proof, he must demonstrate that the evidence established the contested issue as a matter of law. Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55, 58 (Tex.1983). In its analysis, the reviewing court must examine the record for evidence that tends to support the finding, while disregarding all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Sterner v. Marathon Oil Co., 767 S.W.2d 686, 690 (Tex.1989). If there is no evidence to support the trial court’s finding, then the entire record must be examined to see if the contrary proposition is established as a matter of law. See id.

Charles Neville and Knapp make a very narrow argument in this case. They contend that because there is direct evidence of Verdie Neville’s mental state on July 9, 1998, evidence of her mental condition on surrounding dates cannot override that direct evidence, or even be considered as proof of her condition on that particular date.

Charles Neville and Knapp rely on Lee v. Lee, 424 S.W.2d 609 (Tex.1968), to support their position. In that case, a jury found that an eighty-eight-year-old testator did not have testamentary capacity. The witnesses to the execution of the will testified that Lee was competent when he signed the will. The jury did not believe that testimony, instead believing other testimony-not about his condition on that exact date-but instead describing the testator’s dementia as exhibited over a period of years. The court of appeals concluded that the contestant’s evidence about Lee’s prior mental condition only created a suspicion of incapacity at intermittent periods not associated with the date of the execution of the will. The Texas Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals, finding that there was some evidence that Lee was of unsound mind on the date he signed the will. The Supreme Court refused to address the factual sufficiency question because that was within the sole purview of the court of appeals.

Charles Neville and Knapp point to the following language in the Lee opinion:

Since there is no direct testimony in the record of acts, demeanor or condition indicating that testator lacked testamentary capacity on October 2, 1961, testator’s mental condition on that date may *525 be determined from lay opinion testimony based upon the witnesses’ observation of testator’s conduct either prior to or subsequent to the execution.

Id. at 424 S.W.2d 609. They posit that evidence about a testator’s mental condition before or after the signing of the will may be given probative effect only if there is no direct evidence of the testator’s mental soundness on the actual date the will was executed. We disagree.

We do not believe the Supreme Court meant to say in Lee that it is only when there is no direct evidence of the testator’s mental soundness on the date the will was actually signed that evidence of the testator’s mental condition on other dates may be used. Instead, we believe the court was saying that although there was no direct evidence of the testator’s mental condition on the date of execution, the jury’s verdict could still be sustained by the evidence about Lee’s mental soundness on the other dates before and after the will’s signing. This has been the rule in Texas for many years and is confirmed by the Texas Supreme Court’s decisions in Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55 (Tex.1983), and Carr v. Radkey, 393 S.W.2d 806 (Tex.1965), where probative effect was given to evidence of the testator’s mental soundness on both the date of the execution of the will and at times prior to the date the will was executed. It has always been the rule in Texas that, although the proper inquiry is whether the testator had testamentary capacity at the time he executed the will, the court may also look to the testator’s state of mind at other times if those times tend to show his state of mind on the day the will was executed. Evidence pertaining to those other times, however, must show that the testator’s condition persisted and probably was the same as that which existed at the time the will was signed. Whether the evidence of testamentary capacity is at the very time the will was executed or at other times goes to the weight of the testimony to be assessed by the fact finder. See Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55; Carr v. Radkey,

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Bluebook (online)
67 S.W.3d 522, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 822, 2002 WL 126345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-neville-texapp-2002.