Lynn v. Ada Lodge No. 146 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows

1965 OK 3, 398 P.2d 491, 1965 Okla. LEXIS 259
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 12, 1965
Docket40514
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1965 OK 3 (Lynn v. Ada Lodge No. 146 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lynn v. Ada Lodge No. 146 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 1965 OK 3, 398 P.2d 491, 1965 Okla. LEXIS 259 (Okla. 1965).

Opinions

JOHNSON, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court affirming an order of the county court which denied contest and ordered admitted to probate the will of David Ray McNeil, deceased.

Testator, a bachelor, 57 years of age, died May 12, 1961, while a resident of Ada, Oklahoma, leaving as survivors a sister, brother and half-sister, all adults. The will, executed November 25, 1947, devised and bequeathed his entire estate, consisting of a small home and savings, a total not exceeding $5,000.00, to the Ada Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On July 18, 1961, one William B. McCarty, as an official representative of the Lodge, filed petition seeking appointment as executor of the will.

The named relatives who were heirs of deceased, hereinafter designated as plaintiffs, filed their contest asking that such purported will be denied probate because testator was incompetent, the will was not made and published in accordance with the law and was the result of undue influence exercised upon deceased by reason of ill feeling which he bore towards members of his own family. Plaintiffs’ contest was amended to allege that testator was suffering from an insane delusion consisting of the insane belief testator’s mother and sister had conspired to secure his commitment to a mental institution contrary to the [493]*493actual facts, and that the will was the result of such delusion.

At the hearing on contest of the will, the ■evidence disclosed testator had resided in Ada since 1937, at times having been employed as a night watchman. Testimony concerning execution of the will was elicited from a surviving subscribing witness who was a doctor, knew deceased suffered from epilepsy and had prescribed for his condition. There was testimony deceased was rational, had mental capacity to understand the nature and extent of his property, the relationship of those who had a claim upon his estate and the disposition which he desired to make of his property at the time the will was executed.

There was additional testimony elicited from a neighbor and a minister that deceased told these witnesses how he wanted his property to go upon his death and the terms of his will. The neighbor testified testator devised his property as he did because members of the lodge had secured his release from the mental hospital, and his ■sister had wanted to put him back there. On cross-examination this witness admitted deceased had told her the Odd Fellows got up a petition to secure his release and came up and got him out of the hospital, and that he liked the Odd Fellows and wanted them to have his property rather than his own relatives.

The minister, who had known and visited with deceased and knew he was epileptic, testified that he was a tithing church member and that he had willed his property to the lodge. The witness was of the opinion deceased knew the extent and value of his property.

Another witness, a member of the lodge, testified testator told the witness of having willed his property to the lodge; that he had several conversations with testator and was of the opinion he knew the nature and extent of his property and those persons naturally entitled to inherit. The witness knew nothing concerning whether the Odd Fellows had been involved in securing testator’s release in 1947, and testator had said nothing concerning this. The evidence also showed deceased was a lodge member but did not often attend meetings. There was no evidence tending to establish that the lodge members made any effort to secure testator’s release from the mental hospital.

The attorney who drew the will and signed as an attesting witness testified same was prepared from information furnished by testator, who later read the instrument and declared that was what he wanted; testator’s mother lived with him, and she was to be. cared for during her lifetime; the will was executed properly and thereafter filed with the county judge; testator was cognizant of the relationship of those who might have been beneficiaries and knew what he was doing but did not mention why he wished the lodge to have his property.

For contestants there was evidence disclosing that sanity proceedings had been filed against testator; that he was hospitalized and discharged to his family against medical advice on October 1, 1947. Further evidence disclosing insanity proceedings against testator in December, 1949, and that a guardian ad litem had been appointed for him was offered for the purpose of showing the general condition of his mind relative to persecution complex concerning his relatives. However, the court sustained objection thereto upon the ground same occurred following execution of the will. Further evidence bearing upon a mental health proceeding in 1952 also was excluded.

Testator’s sister, Daisy Lynn, one of plaintiffs, testified her brother had been an epileptic since early childhood and became excessively nervous as he grew older. Testator and their mother moved to Ada from Tonkawa in 1927 with witness but stayed only two months and returned to Arkansas, and then they were moved back to Ada in 1937. Testator had been in an epileptic hospital in Kansas and had been in Central State Hospital, Norman, on two occasions. On the first occasion testator had been picked up by police in Newkirk, Oklahoma, and later was taken to Norman. The family had nothing to do with his com-[494]*494mrtment, and their mother secured his’release by agreeing to take him out of the state to live with a half-sister. Later he was hospitalized at Parsons, Kansas, but did not like this, so the plaintiff’s husband moved him to Ada.

Testator’s mother signed the petition when he was committed to Norman August 7, 1947, upon discovering him tearing up the house. At the time he ran his mother away from home. In accord with their mother’s wishes, plaintiff took the mother to the hospital, and they secured his release. The property where they lived had been purchased by their mother, although the deed was taken in his name, and testator and their' mother lived together until he ran the mother away from home. After release from the hospital testator stated the Odd Fellows had gotten him released, and although there was no reason for such belief deceased carried this impression for the rest of his life. After release from the hospital, testator always was suspicious they intended to send him away again and feared they might do this, and on occasion would eavesdrop upon witness and their mother. The witness filed a sanity petition for his commitment in 1949 as a result of deceased having assaulted plaintiff, which would have led to filing of criminal charges except for her agreeing to the sanity charge. At all times following commitment in 1947 testator believed plaintiff and their mother were trying to get him out of the way, and the Odd Fellows would keep him out of the asylum; it was impossible to reason with him concerning such false belief, and witness was afraid of deceased and did not attempt to argue the matter.

Another witness (Mae Hester) testified that she met deceased in 1927; had lived next door from 1938 until his death and talked with him nearly every day. Upon his return from the hospital in 1947 he was mad at his mother and plaintiff, and when a little upset would bring up the subject of their trying to put him in Norman; this was on his mind constantly until he died; she told deceased this was not true, but his mind was not sound on this subject, and sometimes he raved against plaintiff and his mother and often it had been necessary for witness to keep him from assaulting his.

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Bluebook (online)
1965 OK 3, 398 P.2d 491, 1965 Okla. LEXIS 259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lynn-v-ada-lodge-no-146-of-the-independent-order-of-odd-fellows-okla-1965.