Scott v. Dodson

214 S.W.2d 357, 214 Ark. 1, 1948 Ark. LEXIS 456
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 1, 1948
Docket4-8599
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 214 S.W.2d 357 (Scott v. Dodson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Dodson, 214 S.W.2d 357, 214 Ark. 1, 1948 Ark. LEXIS 456 (Ark. 1948).

Opinion

G-bifjbtN Smith, Chief Justice.

We are asked to say that a writing, executed in testamentary manner and with appropriate formality, was not the will of Mrs. Rita G. Boykin. This would contradict a Probate Court judgment that mental capacity was not lacking when the document was executed.

Appellants — Mrs. Boykin’s first cousins by the whole blood — insist it was unnatural for the testatrix to go beyond that line of relationship and favor second cousins by the half blood, and they point to irrational acts and demeanor extending over a long period, and to the fact that between 1892 and 1894 she had “spells” and was under the care of physicians and nurses.

The will was prepared for Mrs. Boykin by the late Hartley Wootton of Hot Springs, where the testatrix resided. Mr. Wootton was one of the State’s best lawyers and a man of unimpeachable integrity. Following Mrs. Boykin’s death in December 1946, Frank K. Scott and thirteen other plaintiffs — one as guardian for an incompetent minor — filed the suit resulting in this appeal. If successful the estate would be apportioned under the law of descent and distribution, to the detriment of Eliza V., Alice, and Ada Boykin, and Scota Boykin Clayton, all of whom were named in Item 7 of the will and identified in Item 8 as residuary beneficiaries; subject, however, to the provisions made for Evelyn Garnett, a brother who would take if Mrs. Boykin predeceased him. Evelyn [Sidney] died in January 1943.

The income from valuable properties in Washington, D. C., — mentioned in oral argument as being worth half a million dollars or more — was subject to the will of Mrs. Boykin’s mother, construction of which is not before us. Hot Springs property, dircetly affected by our determination of the controversy at hand, is said to approximate $180,000.

The briefs filed on behalf of each group of litigants, which reflect painstaking investigation and distinctive legal skill, simplify the controversy by stipulating matters of record, family relationships, and things explanatory.

As Rita Garnett,. Mrs. Boykin was born during the first year of the Civil War. Her father, Dr. A. S. Garnett, enlisted in the Confederate cause, and as a young surgeon saw service on the rechristenecl frigate Virginia, formerly the Merrimac. Alice Evelyn, Dr. Garnett’s wife, for a short period after hostilities ended, was unable to locate her husband. She thereupon went to Selma, Alabama, accompanied by Rita and a son, William. There she was received by a sister, Eliza Scott Boy-kin, and Eliza’s husband, James. They are grandparents of the four beneficiaries whose rights are challenged.

Dr. Garnett, upon ascertaining that his wife and family were at Selma, joined them there for a while. One of appellants’ witnesses testified that the Doctor became a professor in the University of Alabama. During the early ’70’s he moved with his wife and three children to Hot Springs, where for many years he was a leading physician and surgeon.

In support of their contention that the testatrix acted in response to natural instincts when she disregarded relatives whose blood ties were near and selected as beneficiaries those who are spoken of as the Boy-kin sisters, appellees point to the conduct of Eliza Seott Boykin and her husband in receiving Mrs. Garnett and those dependent upon her during a period of stress and impoverishment throughout the South. They emphasize that ties of personal friendship were superimposed upon blood connections, that for many years the utmost amity and good will prevailed; and, finally, that in consequence of mutual affections, Rita Garnett married Tom Boykin —a son of her Aunt Eliza and Uncle James. This occurred in 1900 when Rita was about forty years of age. Shortly after Tom’s death (he lived but ten months after the wedding) Rita gave birth to a son, who was named Aubrey. His mind did' not fully develop, and he died in 1922. Appellees are daughters of Burrell Boy-kin, and Burrell was Tom’s brother.

When Rita’s mother, Alice Evelyn Garnett, died in February 1922, her three children were William Gar-nett, Evelyn Sidney Garnett, and Rita G. Boykin. The two sons — brothers of Rita by the whole blood — predeceased her, each having died without issue.

First — Testamentary Capacity — One of the early cases discussing mental capacity to execute a will was written by Judge David Walker. See Tobin v. Jenkins, (1874) 29 Ark. 151. In Taylor v. McClintock, 87, Ark. 243, 112 S. W. 405, it was said that if the testator shall have capacity to retain in memory, without prompting, the extent and condition of his property, to comprehend to whom he is giving it, and to appreciate the deserts and relations to him of others whom he excludes from participation in the estate, the document will stand a legal test. A number of our holdings were cited by Mr. Justice Butler in Puryear v. Puryear, 192 Ark. 692, 94 S. W. 2d 695. Another case in point is Pernot v. King, 194 Ark. 896, 110 S. W. 2d 539.

The will, prima facie, reflects rationality. After directing the payment of debts, (the last item named J. Walter Dodson as executor) specific bequests are made in Items 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 — the largest being for $1,500. Item 7 gives “unto my cousins” (as tenants in common, naming the four sisters) “all of the real estate now owned by me in the City of Hot Springs, together with the furnishings therein”. If either of the four beneficiaries should predecease the testatrix, dying without issue surviving, the part apportionable to her would go to the survivor or survivors then living, “but if either shall then be dead leaving issue living at my death, then such issue shall take the share which their parent would have taken, if living”. There was a further bequest of “Any and all cash which is owned by me at the time of my death”.

Item 8 leaves the remainder of the estate “ . . . unto my brother, Evelyn Garnett, absolutely and in fee simple, provided he is living at the time of my death; and in the event I am not survived ... by Evelyn, then I give, devise, and bequeath all of the rest and residue of my property to my cousins [the four sisters], and their survivors and issue in the manner as provided in the preceding paragraph”.

Second — Plaintiffs’ Evidence — In spite of testimony that for many years prior to 1938 Mrs. Boyldn had at all times been rational and did not disclose any traces of abnormal conduct — testimony, in some instances, given by witnesses who had no interest in outcome of the litigation, — we think appellants have shown by a preponderance of the evidence that shortly after her marriage, and perhaps during the early childhood of Aubrey, there was deportment from which an inference of irrationality might be drawn.

Mrs. Georgia Lea knew the testatrix, but not intimately. She thought Mrs. Boykin was “violently crazy” in 1892, 1893, and 1894 — “absolutely out of her head, and under the care of three nurses”. There was “something” in Mrs. Boykin’s attitude denoting abnormality: “her eyes showed it, and she did strange things all the time. At night she would have queer spells and ‘holler’, so we got afraid to have her in the house”. When Mrs. Boykin’s son died she was in Mrs. Lea’s home. The death message so distressed Mrs. Boykin that she didn’t comprehend what had occurred: — “said [Aubrey] was sick, but was going to get well,” and she wanted to go to him. However, after this occurrence Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
214 S.W.2d 357, 214 Ark. 1, 1948 Ark. LEXIS 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-dodson-ark-1948.