McCracken v. Manis

483 S.W.2d 738, 1971 Tenn. LEXIS 339
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 19, 1971
StatusPublished

This text of 483 S.W.2d 738 (McCracken v. Manis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCracken v. Manis, 483 S.W.2d 738, 1971 Tenn. LEXIS 339 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

CARNEY, Presiding Judge.

Upon the trial below in Circuit Court upon an issue devisavit vel non a jury found that a paper writing offered for probate in common form was the last will and testament of the deceased, D. W. Mc-Carter. Mr. McCarter died on January 1, 1968, at the age of 97. The paper found to be a holographic will was dated September 15, 1951.

The appellants are children of deceased daughters of the alleged testator, D. W. McCarter. They take nothing under the will. Principal appellee is Ashley C. Mc-Carter, a son of D. W. McCarter, and sole beneficiary under the holographic will. The other appellee is Mrs. Mattie Stinnett Manis, the administratrix with the will an[739]*739nexed, a granddaughter of the deceased D. W. McCarter. Mrs. Manis received nothing under the will.

The appellants have made only two assignments of error: (1) that the Trial Judge erred in not directing a verdict for the appellants since the instrument exhibited upon its face a present transfer of realty and (2) the Trial Court erred in admitting into evidence statements of the deceased without special instructions to the jury concerning the manner in which such statements were to be treated as evidence.

Mr. McCarter died intestate to a portion of his real estate and the appellants as his heirs will share in the intestate property. For several years prior to September 15, 1951, Mr. McCarter had lived in the home of ’ his son, Ashley McCarter, which was located on the real estate allegedly devised under the will in question. Previously, Mr. McCarter had given his son a deed to a portion of the property involved. The son reconveyed the property to his father by deed properly placed of record in the Register’s office of Sevier County prior to September 15, 1951, the date of the alleged will. The holographic will in controversy remained in a drawer of a sewing machine in the appellee Ashley McCarter’s home from September 15, 1951, until the death of D. W. McCarter. After D. W. McCarter’s death, it was filed for registration in the Register’s office of Sevier County by the appellee, Ashley McCarter, upon instructions given him by his father, D. W. Mc-Carter, during D. W. McCarter’s lifetime.

When litigation which questioned the effectiveness and/or legality of the paper writing as a deed was filed or threatened, the appellant Ashley C. McCarter filed the same for prob'ate in common form in the County Court of Sevier County as the last will and testament of his father, D. W. McCarter, on or about August 9, 1968.

The paper writing was admitted to probate in common form and Ashley McCarter was named Administrator C.T.A. having previously been appointed Administrator of the estate of D. W. McCarter. On September 6, 1968, Ashley McCarter resigned as Administrator C.T.A. to avoid a possible conflict of interest. The appellee, Mrs. Mattie Stinnett Manis, was named as Ad-ministratrix with the will annexed.

The handwritten document in question is difficult to read but we copy the same from the photostatic copy contained in the record as follows:

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229 S.W.2d 505 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1950)
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122 S.W.2d 829 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1938)
Carmody v. Trustees of Presbyterian Church
203 S.W.2d 176 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1947)
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In re the Will of Padgett
364 S.W.2d 947 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
483 S.W.2d 738, 1971 Tenn. LEXIS 339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccracken-v-manis-tennctapp-1971.