Robinson v. Estate of Robinson Sr.

2016 Ark. App. 130, 485 S.W.3d 261, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 142
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 2, 2016
DocketCV-15-643
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2016 Ark. App. 130 (Robinson v. Estate of Robinson Sr.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robinson v. Estate of Robinson Sr., 2016 Ark. App. 130, 485 S.W.3d 261, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 142 (Ark. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Chief Judge

| Appellant Richard Robinson appeals the order entered on December 29, 2014, by the Cross County Circuit Court. He argues that the circuit court erred in declining to set aside the May 17, 2011 will (Will) of his father based on findings that his stepmother, appellee Benne Robinson, met her burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that his father possessed mental capacity, testamentary capacity, and competency to make and execute the Will and that she also met her burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not procure the will through undue influence. We affirm.

I. Facts

Harry Robinson, Sr. (Decedent), died on January 10, 2013, at age eighty-six. He had suffered for several years from Parkinson’s disease and various other illnesses, including dementia. Decedent was predeceased by his first wife, Jean Robinson, who died in 1995. They had three sons together. Richard is the only living child of Decedent. The youngest |2son, Lee, died several years prior to Decedent’s death. The oldest son, Harry, Jr., known as Rudyi died on May 11, 2011. Decedent had been a farmer most of his life, and prior to Rudy’s death, Decedent and Rudy had been engaged in a farming partnership. Neither Lee nor Rudy had children surviving them.

Decedent was also survived by his second wife, appellee Benne Robinson (Ben-ne). Decedent married Benne in 1998 when he was seventy-two years old and she was forty-nine years old. The couple had been involved in an ongoing affair since Benne was around twenty years old. Decedent and Benne did not have any children together.

In October 2006, while Decedent was still able to drive, he scheduled an appointment with his attorney, Mr. Danny Glover, and his two living sons, Rudy and Richard, were present for that meeting. At that time, Decedent instructed Mr. Glover to prepare a will, which provided for Benne to have their home and approximately twenty acres and a one-half interest in cattle, and the remainder of the property was to go to his two sons.

Benne learned of the 2006 will' and its contents sometime in 2010, subsequent to which she scheduled an' appointment for Decedent to go to Mr. Glover’s office and execute a new will, dated October 6, 2010, and a limited durable power of attorney. That will set out Decedent’s plan to sell 680 acres of farmland, leaving $800,000 to Rudy, $200,000 to Richard, and the remainder to Benne.

In February 2011, Benne made an appointment for Decedent and took him to Mr. Glover’s office to execute a codicil to the 2010 will, which stated he was selling the property |sunder contract, with ten annual payments of $40,000 to be paid to him, or if he died, to Benne, and when the final balloon payment was made, Rudy was to receive $300,000, Richard $200,000, and the remainder to Benne.

When his brother Rudy died on May 11, 2011, Richard did not immediately go to Decedent but rather went to see Rudy’s wife, Linda, with whom both Decedent and Benne had a strained relationship. When Richard did go to Decedent’s home shortly after Rudy’s death, he told Benne that she was not welcome at Rudy’s visitation’ or funeral. Mr. Glover testified that Decedent told him that he (Decedent) was present when Richard said this.' Decedent’s caretaker, Rebecca Dixon, was also present.

On May 17, 2011, Benne took Decedent to Mr. Glover’s office for -a conference because Decedent wanted to make a new will. The witnesses to the execution of the Will, Casey Shaw and Paula Stroud, and notary, Cathey Haire, each testified that Decedent was acting under his own free will and no undue influence when he signed the Will. Mr. Glover also testified that Decedent was not acting under any undue influence when he signed the 2011 Will. Mr. Glover wrote' a memo on May 19, 2011, wherein he related circumstances concerning his meeting with Decedent outside the presence of Benne prior to execution of the Will on May 17, 2011. There was no proof that Benne told Decedent to make a new will, that Benne drafted the Will, or that she delivered any notes to Mr. Glover concerning the 2011 Will.

The Will was admitted to probate on February 20, 2013, after Decedent’s death. Under the terms of the Will admitted to probate, Benne was the sole beneficiary. On May |41, 2013, Richard filed a petition to set aside the will and a will contest, whereby he alleged that (1) the Will was executed under the undue influence and/or duress of Benne; (2) Decedent was not of sound mind and disposing memory and was mentally incapacitated at the time; (3) the Will was procured by Benne; ■' and (4) Decedent was not competent to sign, in that the Will fails to mention the natural bounties of Decedent’s affections. Benne denied all allegations.

At trial, the circuit court ruled that Richard proved procurement of the Will and that the burden of proof shifted to Benne. In the circuit court’s final order, the circuit court explained that Benne had the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt (1) that Decedent possessed testamentary capacity to make and execute the 2011 Will, and (2) that Decedent made the Will without undue influence from Benne. The circuit court then specifically found that Benrie met her burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Decedent possessed mental capacity, testamentary capacity, and competency to make and execute the 2011 Will, and that Benne met her burdén of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not procure the 2011 Will through undue influence. The circuit court denied Richard’s petition in its order entered on December 29, 2014. Richard filed a timely notice of appeal on January 26, 2015.

II. Standard of Review & Applicable Law

We review probate matters de novo but will not reverse the circuit court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. Shepherd v. Jones, 2015 Ark. App. 279, 461 S.W.3d. 351. A finding is clearly- erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the | sappellate court is left on the entire evidence with the firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. We must also defer to the superior position of the lower court sitting in a probate matter to weigh the credibility of the witnesses. Id. This court’reiterated in Shepherd that.

[a] party challenging the validity of a will must usually prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the testator lacked the requisite mental capacity or that the testator was the victim of undue influence when the will was executed; however, there are certain circumstances that will cause the burden to shift' to the proponent of the will to disprove undue influence. One of those circumstances is when a beneficiary procures the will. Procurement of a will requires the actual drafting of the will for the testator or planning the testator’s will and causing him to execute it. Procurement shifts the burden to the proponent of the will to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the will was not the result of undue influence and that the testator had the mental capacity to make the will. Whether a will was procured by undue influence is a question of fact for the trier of fact. The existence of a confidential relationship between a primary beneficiary and a testator also gives rise tó a rebuttable presumption of undue influence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2016 Ark. App. 130, 485 S.W.3d 261, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-estate-of-robinson-sr-arkctapp-2016.