in the Matter of the Estate of Sherman Alexander Hemsley

460 S.W.3d 629, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 12273, 2014 WL 5854220
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 12, 2014
Docket08-12-00368-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 460 S.W.3d 629 (in the Matter of the Estate of Sherman Alexander Hemsley) 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 the Matter of the Estate of Sherman Alexander Hemsley, 460 S.W.3d 629, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 12273, 2014 WL 5854220 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

ANN CRAWFORD McCLURE, Chief Justice.

Richard Thornton and Robert Thornton appeal an order of the probate court admitting the will of Sherman Alexander Hemsley to probate, authorizing issuance of letters testamentary to Flora Isela En-chinton Bernal, arid determining that Ber-nal is the person entitled to make the disposition of Hemsle/s remains.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Sherman Alexander Hemsley was a popular actor who is best known for his role as George Jefferson on the ground-breaking television shows “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” which ran from 1975 to 1985. Hemsley never married and had no children. He continued to work as an actor and entertainer until at least 2011. Bernal was Hemsley’s business manager for the last twenty years and she described their relationship as that of business partners, best friends, and family. Hemsley and Bernal lived together in El Paso for the last sixteen years of his life. Hemsley considered El Paso to be his home and Bernal to be his family. After being diagnosed with an incurable lung cancer, Hemsley executed a will on June 13, 2012 naming Bernal as the independent executrix and sole beneficiary of his estate. He died in El Paso on July 24, 2012 at the age of seventy-four.

Hemsley was born in 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Arsena Hemsley Chisholm. He was raised by his mother, aunt, and grandmother in a poor neighborhood. They later moved to New York. Hemsley told Bernal and stated during interviews given at various times during his life that he did not have a relationship with his father. Robert Thornton 1 testified during the probate proceedings that his grandfather, William Alexander Thornton, was a Methodist minister and married when he had an affair with Chisholm. Richard Thornton is the son of William Alexander Thornton. Richard testified that both his older brother and his father *633 had told him that Hemsley was his brother. According to Richard, Hemsley took his mother’s maiden name because it would have been “bad news” for Richard’s father if Hemsley had taken Thornton as his last name. The probate court granted Richard’s motion for genetic testing and the DNA test results established that he is Hemsley’s half-brother. While Robert testified that he spoke with Hemsley frequently by telephone or email, Richard did not maintain contact with Hemsley either by phone or mail over the years. Bernal first met Robert and Richard in April 2011 when they attended a performance by Hemsley at a comedy club in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Richard recalled that Hems-ley introduced him to the audience as his brother, but Bernal maintained that Hems-ley never told her that he had a brother and she was unaware until after Hemsley’s death that Richard was his brother. Bernal knew some of Hemsley’s relatives on his mother’s side of the family but she recalled that Hemsley never discussed his father or any relatives on that side of the family. Hemsley told at least one friend that he did not have any family in Philadelphia.

Shortly after Hemsley’s death, a dispute arose between the Thorntons and Bernal with respect to the disposition of Hems-ley’s remains. Bernal intended to bury Hemsley during a military funeral at Fort Bliss in accordance with his wishes. The medical examiner’s office refused to release the remains to Bernal, however, and the medical examiner utilized Hemsley’s cell phone in an effort to locate his next of kin. Someone from the medical examiner’s office called Richard who told the caller he was Hemsley’s brother. Based on that representation, the medical examiner’s office released Hemsley’s body to the Thorntons. The Thornton family made arrangements to have Hemsley’s body taken to a funeral home in El Paso to have the remains prepared for transportation to Pennsylvania for burial at the Washington National Crossing Cemetery.

Bernal filed an application to probate the will and for issuance of letters testamentary one week after Hemsley’s death. Richard contested Bernal’s application on the ground that the signature on the will had not been made by Hemsley, or alternatively, Hemsley was not of sound mind when he made the will. The contest also included Richard’s petition for a declaratory judgment in which he asked the probate court to declare that he has the right to determine the disposition of Hemsley’s remains. In her answer, Bernal requested that the probate court release the remains to her.

Following a bench trial, the probate court entered an order resolving all of the issues. With respect to Richard’s contest, the court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Hemsley had testamentary capacity to execute the will, he was not subject to any undue influence at the time the will was executed, and the signature on the will was that of Hemsley. Regarding Richard’s petition for declaratory judgment, the probate court found that Bernal was the person entitled to dispose of Hemsley’s remains under Section 711.002 of Texas Health and Safety Code. Significant to this issue, the probate court expressly determined that the DNA evidence presented by Richard was admissible only for the limited purpose of establishing a right to inherit pursuant to Sections 53B and 53C of the Texas Probate Code. The probate court admitted the will to probate, ordered that Bernal be appointed independent executor of Hemsley’s estate, and ordered that 'letters testamentary issue. Finally, the court ordered that Bernal was the person entitled to make decisions about the disposition of Hemsley’s remains pursuant to Section 711.002 of the Texas Health and Safety Code.

*634 TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY

In Issues One and Two, the Thorntons challenge the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting the trial court’s determination that Hemsley had testamentary capacity to execute the will. To have the right and power to make a last will and testament, a testator must be of sound mind. Tex.Estates Code Ann. § 251.001 (West 2014). 2 This means that the testator must have testamentary capacity at the time the will is executed. In re Neville, 67 S.W.3d 522, 524 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2002, no pet.). When a contest is filed before the will is admitted to probate, the proponent of the will bears the burden of establishing that it was properly executed and that the testator had testamentary capacity. Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55, 57 (Tex.1983); In the Estate of Coleman, 360 S.W.3d 606, 610 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2011, no pet.).

The testamentary capacity requirement is satisfied upon proof the testator had sufficient mental ability to understand he is making a will, the effect of making a will, and the general nature and extent of his property. Long v. Long, 196 S.W.3d 460, 464 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2006, no pet.); In re Neville, 67 S.W.3d at 524.

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Bluebook (online)
460 S.W.3d 629, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 12273, 2014 WL 5854220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-the-estate-of-sherman-alexander-hemsley-texapp-2014.