State v. Duerksen

1950 OK 6, 213 P.2d 865, 202 Okla. 351, 1950 Okla. LEXIS 354
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 17, 1950
DocketNo. 32291
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1950 OK 6 (State v. Duerksen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Duerksen, 1950 OK 6, 213 P.2d 865, 202 Okla. 351, 1950 Okla. LEXIS 354 (Okla. 1950).

Opinion

O’NEAL, J.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court of Garfield county, Okla., admitting to probate the will of Henry Heitholt and a codicil thereto.

Deceased, Henry Heitholt, a resident of Garfield county, Okla., and having property, both real and personal, in said county, died in Elk City, Okla., August 5, 1941. He left a will, executed April 3, 1940, and a codicil thereto, executed March 26, 1941. The will and codicil were offered for probate in the county court of Garfield county by Herman Adolph Duerksen, the executor named in the will.

The State of Oklahoma, by and through the Attorney General, filed a protest, or objection, to the probate of the will, alleging, in substance, that Henry Heitholt, deceased, at the time the will was executed, was about 86 years of age, infirm and without the mental capacity to make a will; and that said will was made under, and as the result of, undue influence exercised by James Wilson, the attorney who drew the will. This protest 'was filed on the theory that the testator had no heirs, and that the estate would therefore escheat to the State of Oklahoma.

The matter was heard in the county court, and Herman Adolph Duerksen, the executor, and a number of bene[353]*353ficiaries under the will, including George Mangold, a brother of the first wife of decedent, appeared in support of admission of the will to probate, and the State of Oklahoma appeared as contestant.

After hearing, the county court entered an order admitting the will to probate. The State of Oklahoma appealed to the district court. Hearing was had in the district court after an unsuccessful motion of the State for a continuance.

An order admitting the will to probate was entered and the State appealed ito this court solely on the .ground that the court .had erred in overruling its motion for a continuance.

On appeal the order of the district court was reversed on that ground alone, and the cause was remanded to the district court. State v. Duerksen, Ex’r, et al., 191 Okla. 670, 132 P. 2d 649.

Thereafter, in the district court, George Mangold and Edna Mangold, a niece of the first wife of Henry Heitholt, deceased, each of whom were given $3,000 under the will, filed an amended answer, wherein they alleged that in the event the will be denied probate, they and other kindred of the first wife of Henry Heitholt, deceased, would take the property as heirs of Lavinia Mangold Heitholt, the first wife of deceased. They joined the State of Oklahoma in contesting the will and adopted the allegations of the State of Oklahoma.

Harry O. Glasser appeared as Special Counsel for the State. The issues were tried to the court, resulting in extended findings of “evidentiary facts” and findings of “ultimate facts”, and an order sustaining the will and codicil and ordering the same admitted to probate, and the State of Oklahoma appeals.

The contentions are that the findings of fact by the trial court are against the clear weight of the evidence and that the order of the court sustaining the will and codicil, and admitting same to probate, is clearly against the weight of the evidence and contrary to law. This requires an examination of all the evidence. The record contained some 4,000 pages of pleadings, orders, oral testimony, and documentary evidence. Aside from the question of the factum of the will and codicil, much of the record goes to side issues, such as the question of whether the State has the right to be heard as to the competency of the testator and undue influence before a showing that the testator left no heirs; the right of the Northern Oklahoma Co-operative Hospital Association, a corporation, to take under any will, and the right of George W. Mangold, one of the beneficiaries under the will to change from proponent of the will in the county court to a contestant of the will in the district court. Most of these questions have no place in a proceeding of this kind. It has been repeatedly held in this state that the sole question involved when a will is offered for probate is the factum of the will; that is, has the will been executed and attested in the manner and form required by the statutes, and was the testator competent to make a will at the time he made it, and was the testator free from undue influence, fraud or duress in making the will? Armstrong et al. v. Letty et al., 85 Okla. 205, 209 P. 168; Mantz v. Gill, 147 Okla. 199, 296 P. 441; Brock v. Keifer, 59 Okla. 5, 157 P. 88, and Courtney et al. v. Daniel et al., 124 Okla. 46, 253 P. 990.

In this case the record shows that the will and codicil offered for probate were executed and attested in strict compliance with the requirements of the statute. There is no contention to the contrary, and that question is not involved in this appeal. That leaves but two questions: (1) Did the testator, Henry Heitholt, have the mental capacity to make a will at the time the will was executed and at the time the codicil was executed? (2) Was the testator, Henry Heitholt, free from un[354]*354due influence, fraud and duress in the execution of the will and codicil?

We consider first the question of undue influence. The State relies principally upon the fact that the law firm of Wilson & Wilson had represented Henry Heitholt as his legal advisor for sometime before the will was written, and that James Wilson, a member of the firm of Wilson & Wilson, prepared and drafted the will and codicil, and had theretofore prepared a number of wills and codicils for Henry Heitholt and that the will provided that James Wilson should be the attorney for the executor and his fee was fixed at 1 per cent of the appraised value of the estate in a former will, and the same provision was contained in the will offered for probate, except the attorney’s fee was fixed at 2 per cent of the appraised value of the estate; that a short time before the will was executed James Wilson had prepared an application and obtained a charter of incorporation for the Northern Oklahoma Co-operative Hospital Association, which was made the residuary beneficiary under the will; that the will contained a provision that in case the Northern Oklahoma Co-operative Hospital Association should not be in existence and should be dissolved at the time of testator’s death, then that part of the estate given to said Northern Oklahoma Co-operative Hospital Association shall be given to the first cooperative hospital association formed in the city of Enid within two years after the will is admitted to probate, and organized and operated upon a cooperative plan substantially similar to Farmers Union Co-operative Hospital of Elk City, Okla., provided that before any such hospital should be qualified to take under the will that the same must be .approved as sufficient and bona fide by the attorney for the estate — James Wilson or Wilson & Wilson.

The record in this case on the question of undue influence, duress or fraud is in most respects similar to the facts and circumstances as to the same question in Kindt et al. v. Parmenter et al., 83 Okla. 116, 200 P. 706. The principal differences are that in Kindt v. Parmenter, supra, the corporation that was organized and incorporated by Parmenter was a church instead of a co-operative hospital, and there was no beneficiary' named in case the church corporation was not in existence at the time of the death of the testator, and in that case the attorney who wrote the will was named as executor of the will instead of attorney for the executor.

In Kindt et al. v. Parmenter et al., supra, it was held:

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Related

In Re Estate of Holcomb
2002 OK 90 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2002)
Simler v. Wilson
1954 OK 99 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1954)
In Re Fletcher's Estate
1954 OK 99 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1954)
In Re Heitholt's Estate
213 P.2d 865 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
1950 OK 6, 213 P.2d 865, 202 Okla. 351, 1950 Okla. LEXIS 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-duerksen-okla-1950.