Norwood v. Norwood

183 S.W.2d 118, 353 Mo. 548, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 466
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 6, 1944
DocketNo. 39025.
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 183 S.W.2d 118 (Norwood v. Norwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Norwood v. Norwood, 183 S.W.2d 118, 353 Mo. 548, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 466 (Mo. 1944).

Opinions

Sec. 538, R.S. 1939, Mo. R.S.A., Sec. 538, amended, Laws 1943, p. 303, provides, among other things, that when a paper writing purporting to be a will has been denied probate, any person interested may, within one year, proceed in the circuit court of the county to establish such purported will, and that the issue shall be "whether the writing produced be the will" of the alleged *Page 551 testator. The present cause is an action to establish a paper writing, denied probate, as the last will and testament of Anna K. Norwood, deceased. Verdict and judgment were that the said paper writing was not the last will and testament of the said Anna K. Norwood. Motion for a new trial was overruled and plaintiff appealed. The appeal lies to the supreme court because title to real estate is involved.

Error is assigned (1) on the refusal of plaintiff's (appellant's) demurrer to the defendant's evidence at the close of the case; (2) on defendant's (respondent's) instruction No. 1; and (3) on the rejection of certain evidence offered by plaintiff.

Plaintiff and defendant are sons and the only heirs of Anna K. Norwood, the alleged testatrix, who died August 21, 1941. The property involved is in Jefferson City. The will sought to be established as the last will [119] of Mrs. Norwood was executed July 17, 1935, and there is no claim that this will, which is set out in the petition, was not properly executed. The claim, as appears infra, is that this will was revoked by a subsequent will. The 1935 will was denied probate by the probate court of Cole County, September 13, 1941. The petition alleges the execution of the will, the death of Mrs. Norwood, pleads the offering for probate, the denial of admission to probate, and asked that an issue be made and submitted to a jury as to whether the said paper writing was the last will and testament of Mrs. Norwood.

The answer made certain admissions about which there is no dispute, including the admission that the purported will was presented for probate and that such was denied. Undue influence upon his mother by plaintiff was pleaded, but that question was withdrawn from the jury. The answer alleged that in August, 1939, Mrs. Norwood made and executed her last will and testament (hereinafter referred to as the 1939 will) by the terms of which she revoked all prior wills; that the August, 1939 will, on September 13, 1941, was admitted to probate by the probate court of Cole County, and adjudged by the probate court to be the last will and testament of Mrs. Norwood, and defendant asked that the 1935 will be declared "not to be the last will and testament" of Anna K. Norwood.

Plaintiff replied by general denial and alleged that "all the matters and things" alleged by defendant as to the 1939 will "are res adjudicata", and that defendant was "barred from setting up as a defense" to the present cause "any matters and things with respect to the will alleged to have been made" by Mrs. Norwood in August, 1939, because, plaintiff alleged, in cause No. 9515, filed by plaintiff (October 16, 1941, same day present cause was filed) against defendant and others the sole issue was whether or not Mrs. Norwood, in August, 1939, "duly made and executed a will as is shown by the petition and answer and other pleadings in that cause"; that upon the trial of that issue "a jury returned into this court a verdict on *Page 552 December 17, 1942, . . . that the will alleged to have been made" by Mrs. Norwood in August, 1939, was not her last will and testament; that no appeal was taken and that the matter became final.

Plaintiff filed motion to strike that part of defendant's answer pleading the execution of the 1939 will. The motion proceeded on the theory that all such was res adjudicata by reason of the former suit. In support of the motion, plaintiff sought to introduce "the pleadings, the record, the motion for a new trial in case No. 9515 wherein Ernest Norwood was plaintiff and Everett Norwood and others were defendants." Objection to the offering was on the grounds "that the pleadings as offered upon their face show that it was an entirely different and distinct and separate case — an entirely different, separate and distinct cause of action from the suit now pending before this court, number 9516, and for the further reason the pleadings as offered on their face show different parties, and for the further reason that no final and complete judgment was ever rendered by the circuit court of Cole County, Missouri, in said cause." It seems that no formal judgment was entered on the verdict of the jury in cause No. 9515. The motion to strike was sustained in part, but the court said: "If you (defendant) can convince the jury there was a subsequent will executed which revoked this one, you would be entitled to show that."

Plaintiff offered in evidence the pleadings and the verdict in cause No. 9515, but these were excluded on the same grounds invoked when offered in support of the motion to strike. These offerings appear, however, in the record as excluded offerings.

Plaintiff does not assign error on the admission of evidence. His demurrer to defendant's evidence goes to the propositions that the evidence was not sufficient to make a submissible issue on the execution of the 1939 will, and we may say, to the defense of res adjudicata.

The present plaintiff (appellant) Ernest Norwood, was the sole plaintiff in cause No. 9515, tried in the circuit court December 17, 1942. The present cause (9516) was tried November 26, 1943. Defendants, in cause No. 9515, were Everett Norwood (present defendant); Alpha Goff, daughter of plaintiff; Ted and Johnnie Norwood, and Madeline Norwood Porter, sons and daughter of defendant Everett Norwood; Bernice Norwood, former wife of Everett; and Edwin Bode, administrator c.t.a. of the estate of Anna K. Norwood.

The 1935 will, that is, the present will, gave to Ernest Norwood, plaintiff here, the house and lot at 816 Fairmount Street, the coal yard equipment (Mrs. Norwood operated a coal yard in Jefferson City), together [120] with the good will of the business. The 1935 will gave to Everett Norwood, defendant here, the house and lot at 922 West McCarty Street. The residue was given equally to Ernest and Everett. The 1935 will was witnessed by Phil M. Dampf, deceased at time of trial, and Mrs. Nora O'Neal. *Page 553

The 1939 will was lost, but from what purports to be a substantial copy it appears that the Fairmount Street property was given to Ernest for life only, remainder to his daughter, Alpha, and Ted, Everett's son, and the West McCarty Street property was given to Everett for life only, remainder to Johnnie, Ted and Madeline Norwood Porter, and Anna Marie Norwood, sons and daughters of Everett. This will also gave to Alpha an automobile, and to Bernice Norwood, the former wife of Everett, the coal business, except accounts, but she was to divide the net profits between Ernest and Everett. The residue was given equally to Ernest and Everett. The purported copy of the 1939 will shows witnessed by Ira H. Lohman and Nora O'Neal.

[1] We rule, infra, that plaintiff's plea of res adjudicata was well taken, but in order to better appreciate that plea, it is necessary, we think, to deal at some length with the evidence as to the 1939 will. Plaintiff, proponent of the 1935 will, used a bank employee to identify the signature of Phil M. Dampf, witness to that will, then called Mrs. O'Neal, also a witness, introduced the will, and rested. Both wills were drafted by Ira H. Lohman, an attorney, Jefferson City. Mrs. O'Neal, a witness to both wills, was a stenographer in Mr. Lohman's office for a number of years and was such at the time both wills were executed. She testified that Anna K.

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Bluebook (online)
183 S.W.2d 118, 353 Mo. 548, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norwood-v-norwood-mo-1944.