Scott v. Wimberly

3 S.E.2d 71, 188 Ga. 148, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 477
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 11, 1939
DocketNo. 12643
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 3 S.E.2d 71 (Scott v. Wimberly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Wimberly, 3 S.E.2d 71, 188 Ga. 148, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 477 (Ga. 1939).

Opinion

Bell, Justice.

This is the second appearance of this case. In Scott v. Wimberly, 185 Ga. 561 (195 S. E. 865), the judgment of the trial court disallowing an amendment offered by the caveator and alleging undue influence, was reversed. After the return of the case to the lower court the caveat was further amended by adding the following: “That his deceased wife left no children, and that except for the alleged will he is her sole heir. That on or about January-, 1917, she suffered a complete nervous breakdown, complaining of head pains, of hearing noises, of people peering at her through windows and doors, and her mental condition grew so bad that caveator, with other members of her family carried her to Asheville, Baltimore, and other.places for treatment. That for a brief period she appeared to respond to treatment, but finally about the year 1920, while her bodily health improved, her mental condition grew worse to such an extent that it became fixed, and from this time to the end of her life she was incapable of understanding business, and lacked sufficient mentality to understand the nature of a will. That, from about the year 1920 to her last illness, she was able to take walks, knew familiar faces, and could do other acts requiring no exercise of her mentality, although she did conceive the idea that caveator, her husband, had deserted her in 1917, which was in fact untrue, since caveator was at all times a faithful and affectionate husband to his wife; and such belief was a result of the mental disease with which his wife was possessed. That, laboring under this belief, she was induced to bring a petition for divorce filed to the July term, 1921, of the superior court of Bibb County, in which desertion was alleged as a ground for divorce, which ground was in fact untrue, and was [150]*150so found; and that later she attempted to bring a second proceeding against caveator. That Mrs. Mary P. Scott also conceived the idea due to her mental condition that her husband had in some way mistreated her, which was also untrue, and that the idea of desertion and of mistreatment persisted in the mind of the said Mary P. Scott, though without foundation of fact; and if in fact a will was signed by Mary P. Scott as alleged, that it was induced by the erroneous belief that she had been deserted by her husband and that he had wronged her in some way. That caveator visited his wife until he was denied admittance to her presence, and continued to write to her until her death, his own health having been impaired to such an extent that he was unable to work and was compelled to live in a western climate, his wife having funds of her own sufficient to care for her needs, and caveator being totally destitute after receiving injuries which prevented him from further practicing his profession.” A verdict in favor of the propounder was returned. The caveator’s motion for new trial was overruled, and he excepted.

In the first special ground of the motion for new trial complaint is made that the court “omitted to instruct the jury as to the elements of undue influence as applied to the instant case, although a special ground of caveat was directed to that one question.” On the subject of undue influence the court charged the jury that “the very nature of a will requires that it should be freely and voluntarily executed; hence anything which destroys this freedom of volition invalidates a will; such as fraudulent practices upon testator’s fears, affections, or sympathies, duress or any undue influence, whereby the will of another is substituted for the wishes of the testator.” This instruction in language of the Code, § 113-208, was applicable to the case; and in the absence of a proper written request it is not cause for a new trial that the court failed to elaborate thereon. Gale City Dairy & Ice Cream Co. v. McRae, 164 Ga. 810 (2) (139 S. E. 542). In the same ground error is also assigned on the charge of the court that “All wills are to be construed as being valid or invalid at the time they are executed; that is, at the time the mil was signed.” The complaint is that this charge “omitted the issue made by caveator that the undue influence exerted may have occurred before the will was even prepared, there being no. direct and positive evidence that [151]*151Mrs. Effie Pope Wimberly [the propormcler] was with the testatrix when the will was signed.” This assignment of error is without merit. The instruction just quoted was not given in connection with the subject of undue influence. The court, at the request of the caveator, had instructed the jury in the language of the Code, § 113-106, and thereafter proceeded: “I further charge you in this connection that where the relation of husband and wife or parent and child exists, that as to these parties all other persons are strangers. In this connection I charge you this: All wills are to be construed as being valid or invalid as of the time they are executed; that is, the time the will is signed. I charge you that while a devise to strangers to the exclusion of the testator’s wife or child requires you to closely scrutinize the will, and upon slight evidence you would be authorized to deny probate to the will, if at the time the will is executed by the testator the testator has both husband and child, and she devises her property to her child to the exclusion of her husband, this rule would not apply, because the child is not a stranger within the language of this section of the Code; and the subsequent death of the child would not change the rale, because the will must be considered as of the time it was made, and not at the time it is offered for probate.” Prom the context it is plain that the excerpt, “All wills are to be construed as being valid or invalid at the time they are executed; -that is, at the time the will was signed,” was intended to apply to an entirely different subject from that of undue influence, and that it was not erroneous for the reason assigned.

What has been said above as to the sufficiency of the court’s instruction on the subject of undue influence is applicable to the complaint in the second special ground of the motion, that the court erred in “failing to plainly and fully charge the law as to the execution of a will under a mistake of fact.” The court instructed the jury substantially in the language of the Code, § 113-210, that “A will executed under a mistake of fact as to the existence or conckict of the heirs at law of a testator, is inoperative, so far as such heir at law is concerned, but the testator shall be deemed to have died intestate as to him.” (Italics ours.) In this ground it is also alleged that the court erred “in charging-on the question of ‘ delusions,’ which failed to, distinguish the issue raised in the caveat setting out mistake of fact as to desertion and [152]*152abandonment by the caveator, and the evidence in the record that showed the testatrix had also the belief that she was going to hell.” The instruction just quoted was given to the jury on the general subject of testamentary capacity, the alleged lack of which constituted the original ground of the caveat in this case. There was evidence that the testatrix was imbued with the belief that she had committed an unpardonable sin, and that her soul was lost. The charge quoted merely instructed the jury that if Mrs. Scott suffered from delusions, such delusions would invalidate the will only if the will was produced by the delusions; and it did not tend to confuse the jury, as contended.

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Bluebook (online)
3 S.E.2d 71, 188 Ga. 148, 1939 Ga. LEXIS 477, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-wimberly-ga-1939.