Mann v. Haines

73 P.2d 1066, 146 Kan. 988, 1937 Kan. LEXIS 96
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 11, 1937
DocketNo. 33,709
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 73 P.2d 1066 (Mann v. Haines) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mann v. Haines, 73 P.2d 1066, 146 Kan. 988, 1937 Kan. LEXIS 96 (kan 1937).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Wedell, J.:

This action was brought by certain beneficiaries of a probated will to obtain a construction thereof. The trial court construed the will in accordance with their contention, and the defendants, heirs at law, and one of the beneficiaries, who was made a defendant, appeal.

The heirs at law contend the record discloses a later will was lost or destroyed, the probated will was revoked and they are entitled to the estate of the deceased. Frank Leonard, the defendant beneficiary, is not an heir 'at law and does not contend the probated will was revoked, but urges the trial court erred in the construction of that portion of the will which affects his interest. The administrator appears in support of the judgment upholding the probated will.

The appeal presents two main issues. The first is whether the probated will was revoked. The second is, if that will was not revoked, then what constitutes a proper construction thereof.

The probated will was executed January 22, 1935, the testatrix died July 12, 1936, and the will was regularly probated August 3, 1936. The document which the heirs contend revoked the probated will was executed in February of 1936.

For convenience and clarity we shall refer to the plaintiff beneficiaries under the probated will as appellees, to the one defendant beneficiary as the appellant Frank Leonard, and to the defendant heirs at law as appellants.

The trial court made findings of fact and conclusions of law. The pertinent facts found in relation to the purported revoking instrument were:

13. “In the early part of February, 1936, Minnie L. Leonard planned a trip to Texas for her health. Shortly before going and about February, 1936, she went to said bank with a sheet of paper with typewriting on it and talked with Mr. Wilson and Mr. McCauley. In the presence of each of them she stated in substance that she was not satisfied with her former will, that she desired to make some changes in it and that the paper she exhibited to them was her will and that she desired them to act as witnesses. She then signed [990]*990said paper in their presence and they in her presence and in the presence of each other signed their names to said paper as witnesses, but they did not read it and she did not tell them anything of what was written thereon. She took this paper away with her, and the evidence does not show that it was ever seen after that date or what became of it. The evidence does not show what was written on said paper, that she ever at any time divulged, or that anyone except herself ever knew what was written on said paper. All parties seem to agree that the will of January 22, 1935, was typed by Minnie L. Leonard on a typewriter that she had in her home, and while there is no direct evidence on the point, yet it seems to be assumed that she personally typed the contents of the paper that was witnessed by Wilson and McCauley in February, 1936, which she referred to as her will.
“After the execution of said will of January 22, 1935, and before February, 1936, she expressed an intention to some time change its provisions and that she expected to give to Frank Leonard a larger share of her property than given to him by her will of January 22, 1935, but that she intended to leave a substantial part of her estate to the city of Augusta.
14. “After returning from Texas and about the 3d day of July, 1936, she, with friends, started to drive to her cottage in Minnesota where she expected to spend the summer. She was taken sick on the road and died in Minnesota on July 12, 1936.
15. “The day after her funeral a search was made for her will. She had an iron safe in her home in which she kept many of her papers, and in this safe was found the will of January 22, 1935, enclosed in the envelope that has been offered as defendant’s exhibit A. A careful and diligent search has been made for other wills and for the paper witnessed by Wilson and Mc-Cauley about February, 1936, but nothing has been found.
“On August 3, 1936, the will of January 22, 1935, was admitted to probate in this county and her estate is now in the process of administration.” (Italics inserted.)

It is not entirely clear from the record exactly how much of finding No. 13 was objected to, but it appears appellants objected to the italicized portion of finding No. 13, on the ground it was not supported by evidence and was contrary thereto. In order to include all that may have been embraced in the objection we are assuming the objection extended to and included the word “paper” at the end of the sentence beyond the italicized portion. The brief of appellants contains a “statement of essential facts,” with references to the abstract. Diligent search does reveal the testatrix in effect told the attesting witnesses that Mr. Haines was made administrator under the new will. That information, together with the fact of her signature, was all the information they or any other person was shown to have had concerning the contents of the last instrument. The testatrix had folded the paper so as to leave only her signature and attestation clause visible. In substance, all she told the wit[991]*991nesses was that she was dissatisfied with her former will and was making some changes. Whether she was referring to changes she was making in language she had employed or in punctuation or to its form in other respects or to substance, or to both form and substance is, of course, a matter of speculation. Certainly, as will presently appear, her former will was not all it might have been from a scrivener’s standpoint. Whether the new instrument in reality effected any legal change in the probated will, and if so what change, the evidence did not disclose.

Appellants also requested additional findings of fact, which request was denied. We have carefully examined the requested findings and find no reversible error in that ruling. The trial court might have made some of the findings requested, but such additional findings as it properly might have made would not have altered the conclusions of law.

On the subject of revocation the conclusions of law were as follows :

1. “The evidence does not warrant the legal conclusion that the paper signed by Minnie L. Leonard and witnessed by J. T. Wilson and R. L. Mc-Cauley about February, 1936, was a legal and valid will of Minnie L. Leonard, and does not warrant the legal conclusion that said paper contained either an express or an implied provision revoking her will of January 22, 1935, and does not warrant the legal conclusion that said paper contained any provision revoking, changing or modifying or that was inconsistent with any provision of her said will of January 22, 1935.”
2. “The evidence does not warrant the legal conclusion that the will of Minnie L. Leonard, dated January 22, 1935, was by her thereafter revoked, canceled, annulled or changed.”

Appellants objected to these conclusions and insist they must be reversed. They insist the plain provisions of G. S. 1935, 22-241 and 22-242, compel this result. We shall begin with an examination of the first section. It provides:

“A will shall be revoked by the testator,

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Bluebook (online)
73 P.2d 1066, 146 Kan. 988, 1937 Kan. LEXIS 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mann-v-haines-kan-1937.