Lucas v. Parsons

27 Ga. 593
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided March 15, 1859·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinions

By the Court.

Lumpkin J.

delivering the opinion.

[1.] The great question made by the record in this case, and the one chiefly argued by counsel on both sides, is, whether the Court below erred in refusing .to grant anew trial on the Sth ground, in the motion for a new trial, “because the very diet was contrary to the law and evidence, and decidedly' and strongly against the weight of evidence.”

The evidence is voluminous, and the witnesses give different opinions, as to the capacity of the testator at, and about the time of the factum of the will, but the main current of facts in relation to the testator’s “ mind and habits, and affections,” seem to be very well agreed on by nearly all the principal witnesses on both sides. The evidence makes us distinctly acquainted with the testator as far back as twenty years before the making of the paper here set up as his will, and there is some evidence going much further back, but it is unnecessary to consider it. Prior to the winter of 1853 and 1854, the testator was a sane man; after that time, it is conceded by the propounders, that he became deranged, at least a lunatic. The propounders insist, however, that he was restored to his reason, or at least had a lucid interval, en the 2d day of April, 1855, and this is denied by the caveator, and this is the main issue.

Before the loss of his reason, Dr. Hall says he was “ a clear headed, discriminating person in ordinary business matters, respectful and decent in his deportment.” All the witnesses who speak on this point, corroborate this statement. He was a practical, thriving business man, careful with his [616] property, very successful in farming, and. in the use of money; he was a drinking man, and sometimes drank too much; and when drinking fond of jesting; “ but he was never irrational,” “never indecent in his deportment,” never substituted “imaginary things for facts,” even when he had drunk too much. “ He was just as hard to trade with under the influence of liquor, as at any other time.”

. He had great domestic troubles; he and his wife did not live happily together; her temper was unfortunately affected by a hysterical disorder, but this kind of life was not uniform and continuous; there were times when her temper gave way, and then there was greater harmo^r in the household. At times, they did not speak to each other, nor did they room together. He often complained of his hardships in these respects, and declared his domestic troubles drove him to drinking. A poor, but common refuge in such cases. Many other evidences of unhappiness are stated in the record, which I need not repeat. He had two daughters ; one married Elza Holsten, and the other married James M. Parsons; neither married to suit him. The last, especially, married clandestinely, and very much against his will; for sometime after this marriage, the witnesses say, the testator “hated Parsons;” afterwards he said he would make the best of it, and some of the witnesses say “he came to respect Dr. Parsons;” Holsten, he declared, was not of much force any rvay. It is very clearly shown, that always before his insanity, Littleberry Lucas declared, neither of these men should ever have his property “ if he died in his right mind”

The testator had one son, the caveator in this case; in this son, and his fatuity, this old man seems to have found all his happiness. Onr brother Hill speaks of this son as the old man’s cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night,” and even our brother Trippe, the counsel for the propounders, admits .that Cincinnatus M. Lucas “was at once the old man’s Reuben and Benjamin.” .With a force which a glad [617] father’s heart alone could express, the testator was in the habit oí declaring that “Nat, his son, was all a father’s heart could wish.” After a careful examination of the evidence, we-must admit, that none of these eulogies can be called extravagant. As a natural result, this son had all his father’s confidence. He kept his money and notes, attended to all his business, “ helped him to make what he had,” and it seemed to be the father’s delight to do just as his son said. He bought a new secretary for the safe keeping of his papers,, and had it carried, not to his own, but to Nat’s house. If a. neighbor came to borrow money, he sent him “to Natty;” if cotton was to he sold, or an overseer employed, or anything else done, “ Natty” must do it. The wisdom of this, confidence is seen in the result — the old man continued to> grow rich. With this clear head, and these fixed affections, old Mr. Lucas, sometime before 1845, called on his neighbor, Mr Lester, to write his will; it was very carefully prepared. The testator and the scrivener, at the instance of the first, sought a retired place, and Mr. Lucas had his plan for disposing of his large estate, all arranged; he gave his wife a competency; he settled upon his daughters, portions for life, remainder to their children; he gave Cinc.innatus’s sons.a special legacy “to perpetuate his name,” as he said ; he gave his faithful old negroes, “ who had worked with him, and through the heat and burthen of the day,” to his son, for “Natty would take good care of them;” he stated to Mr. Lester his reasons at the time, for so making his will, and for giving his son’s family the advantage, and they are in strict accordance with the facts above stated; “ it was a rational act, and rationally done.”

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Lucas v. Parsons, 27 Ga. 593 (Ga. 1859).

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