Stubbs v. Marshall

54 Tex. Civ. App. 526
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 24, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 54 Tex. Civ. App. 526 (Stubbs v. Marshall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stubbs v. Marshall, 54 Tex. Civ. App. 526 (Tex. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

RICE, Associate Justice.

—This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of appellees in a suit brought by them to contest the will of W. A. Kemp, deceased, and to set aside a judgment of the County Court of Blanco County, probating the same, on the ground of undue influence alleged to have been exercised over the testator by his wife Nan A. Kemp, the sole legatee and beneficiary thereunder.

This is the second appeal in this case (48 Texas Civ. App., 158), but as the first appeal involved only the correctness of a judgment with reference to questions of practice, upon which no question arises here, it will not be necessary to further consider the same. .

The first error assigned, which is raised by the fourth and fifth assignments, is that the court erred in permitting W. B. Harmon, the father of the minor plaintiffs, who as their next friend brought this suit, and Yernie Harmon, one of the minor plaintiffs, to testify over defendants’ objection to certain statements by and transactions he and his daughter had with the testator prior to, about the time of, and subsequent to the execution of the will in controversy, asserting by their propositions thereunder that parties at interest, as provided by article 3303 of the Eevised Civil Statutes, are, in cases like the present, forbidden to testify over objection to statements by and transactions had with the deceased. Pretermitting a discussion as to whether or not the plaintiffs in this case would fall within the inhibition of the statute, we do not believe that their contention, as shown by the record, can be sustained, because it appears from the recitations of the bill and the explanations thereof made by the court that during the progress of the trial counsel for appellees in open court, and in the presence of the 'jury, after the introduction of the testimony complained of, expressed a doubt as to its admissibility and asked the court to exclude it and direct the jury not to consider said evidence; whereupon the court assented and said, “All right.” And upon this question again being presented on motion for new trial each of the jurors were called before the court and testified that they understood the court to have withdrawn said testimony, and that they did not consider the same in arriving at their verdict. Even if it was error to have admitted it in the first instance, we think the action of the court, as shown by the record, rendered the same harmless. (Church v. Waggoner, 78 Texas, 202; Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Stoy, 44 Texas Civ. App., 448.) It likewise appears from the record that much of what was testified to in this connection was legitimate evidence and did not infringe upon the rule invoked; and it has been often held that where a single objection is made to testimony, some of which is admissible and some not, there is no error in admitting it all, because the court is not required to segregate the legitimate evi[529]*529deuce from such as is inadmissible. (St. Louis S. W. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Frazier, 87 S. W., 400; Jameson v. Dooley, 98 Texas, 206; Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Gormley, 91 Texas, 393; Texas C. Ry. Co. v. Powell, 38 Texas Civ. App., 157.) For which reasons both of said assignments are overruled.

As the sixth, seventh and eighth assignments of error challenge the correctness of the ruling of the trial court in admitting certain evidence given by Bose and wife relative to certain conversations and occurrences had between testator and his wife, as well as certain statements made by testator, tending to show that the will was procured by undue influence exercised by Mrs. Nan A. Kemp over the testator, they will be considered together.

The record discloses that W. A. Kemp, the testator, had been married three times; that Mrs. Marshall, one of the plaintiffs, was a daughter of the first marriage, and that the minor plaintiffs were children of a deceased daughter, a sister of Mrs. Marshall; that prior to his marriage to Nan A. Kemp he had made a will devising his property to Mrs. Marshall and her sister, Mrs. Harmon, mother of the minor plaintiffs, but that a short time after his marriage with the said Mrs. Kemp another will had been made in which the property was equally divided between his said two daughters and Mrs. Kemp; and it is shown by the bill of exceptions taken to the ruling of the court complained of under these assignments, that the said witness Bose was permitted, over appellants’ objection, to testify that after Mrs. Harmon’s death he heard testator and Nan A. Kemp, his wife, talking about making a will and saying things ought to be changed from what they were. That he said that the will that he had made (meaning the former will) ought to be the right one; that he had heard this talk more than once; that testator said he thought the will ought to be let stand like it was (meaning the will in which his two daughters were given equal portions with Mrs. Kemp). “That when his wife would threaten to go back to Tennessee if he did not change his will (meaning the former one) he sometimes would say he would not do it and sometimes would say he would. With reference to whether after the will in controversy was made he ever talked to me about it—as to being satisfied or dissatisfied with it—he said it did not suit him. That a few days before he died he stated that he was going to die.” Witness tried to get him not to talk about it, but he said he would be better satisfied if he knew his children would get something of what he had left.

Mrs. Bose, likewise over objection, was allowed to testify to matters of like import.

Appellees insist by counter-propositions that in cases where there is independent and substantive evidence raising the issue of undue influence, that then the declarations of the testator before, at the time of and after the execution of the will are admissible to aid the jury in determining whether the will was really the spontaneous expression of the testator’s free will, or whether its execution was brought about by the influence which other evidence showed was brought to bear, and that such declarations, especially after the execution of a will, are [530]*530properly admissible as rebutting the inference which may arise from the failure of the testator to change the will. The authorities cited by counsel for appellees seem to sustain his contention in this respect.

Where a will is charged to have been procured by undue influence, the law seems to be settled that where there is independent evidence showing, or tending to show, the exercise of undue influence over and upon the mind of the testator at the time the will is executed, then it becomes competent, for the purpose of showing whether he was probably influenced, or what in fact was the status of his mind at the time, to show his declarations and statements relative to it in order to illustrate the question as to whether he was in fact influenced thereby. In the present case there was testimony sufficient to raise the issue that undue influence had been exercised over the mind of the testator in order to procure the execution of the will in question,outside and independent of any declaration made by him. This being true, it seems to us that it was competent to show his declarations, both before and after the execution of the will, bearing upon the question as to whether or not he was moved to execute it by reason of such influence.

In Campbell v. Barrera, 32 S. W., 724, the declarations of the testatrix were held admissible for the purposes named. The same doctrine is also held in Johnson v. Brown, 51 Texas, 80; Kennedy v. Upshaw, 66 Texas, 454; Patterson v. Lamb, 21 Texas Civ. App., 512.

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Bluebook (online)
54 Tex. Civ. App. 526, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stubbs-v-marshall-texapp-1909.