Tate v. Wren

185 Va. 773
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedNovember 23, 1946
DocketRecord No. 3089
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 185 Va. 773 (Tate v. Wren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tate v. Wren, 185 Va. 773 (Va. 1946).

Opinion

Gregory, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Colonel James D. Tate, late of Chilhowie, Virginia, died on December 21, 1941, in Savannah, Georgia. He and his wife, Florence Lee Tate, were spending some time in Savannah, expecting to continue their journey to Florida, at which latter place they expected to spend the winter. Col. Tate left surviving him his widow, and four nephews, B. T. Wren, W. H. Wren, J. H. Wren, J. Robert Wren, and a niece, Edith J. Whitney. There were no children. The nephews and the niece were children of a deceased sister of Col, Tate, and they were his nearest blood relatives.

A controversy arose between Mrs. Tate and the nephews and niece as to whether or not Col. Tate died testate. After his death, and after a complete search had been made, no will was found. The controversy finally culminated in this suit which was brought by J. Robert Wren against Mrs. Tate and others, asking that the court, by a proper decree, establish the contents of an alleged holographic will of James D. Tate, executed in 1939. He prayed that this alleged will be set up and established as the last will and testament of James D. Tate, deceased.

By amendments and answers it was alleged and averred that if the 1939 paper could not be established as a will, a certain paper, drawn in 1933 and alleged to have been executed by Col. Tate, should be established as his last will and testament. Fraud was charged against W. A. Wolfe, cashier of the Marion National Bank. Exceptions to the bill, a demurrer, and a cross-bill were filed.

This suit was instituted and conducted under the general chancery jurisdiction of a court of equity as distinguished [776]*776from the statutory proceeding provided for under Code, sec. 5259 (Michie), where a jury is ordered to ascertain whether any, and if any, how much of what was so offered for probate be the will of the decedent.

An issue out of chancery was awarded by the chancellor and a jury was empaneled for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not Col. Tate died testate. The jury, by its verdict, found that the 1933 paper was the valid will of James D. Tate, and that the copy of the same presented in the evidence was a true copy. They also found that the disappearance of said will was due to some other cause than the revocation thereof by James D. Tate, and in establishing this disappearance, the jury found “no evidence involving, fraudulently or otherwise, William A. Wolfe.”

The court, after due consideration, carried the verdict of the jury into effect by its decree. From that decree this appeal was allowed.

The estate consisted of more than four hundred thousand dollars in personal property, and in excess of one hundred thousand dollars in real estate. In the event of intestacy, Mrs. Tate would take an absolute estate in the personal property and an estate for life in the real estate, with remainder to the niece and nephews.

After the search for a will had been conducted without finding one, Mrs. Tate, together with, Marion National Bank and Dr. William T. Graham, of Richmond, were appointed and qualified as administrators of the estate on January 9, 1942. They continued from their appointment and qualification to administer the estate until the original bill was filed in this cause on December 29, 1943.

One James D. Mahoney, who had been reared by Mr. and Mrs. Tate, and who appeared as a beneficiary in both of the alleged wills filed a petition as late as April 6, 1945, in which he sought to have the alleged will of 1933 established as the last will of the decedent if the alleged will of 1939 could not be established.

The principal question in the case was whether the court was authorized to establish as a last will a paper admittedly [777]*777in the continuous and exclusive possession of the decedent when its disappearance had not been accounted for other than through the presumption that the decedent himself destroyed the paper with intention to revoke it.

Col. Tate was and had been for many years a prominent citizen of Smyth county, a man of large business affairs, and interested in many of the business undertakings in his section of the State. He was also a prosperous farmer, careful and prudent, and had amassed a considerable estate.

The niece and nephews had lost their parents when they were quite young and Col. Tate, his mother, and his wife, had assisted in rearing them.

In November, 1933, Col. Tate called upon B. L. Dickinson, an attorney-at-law in Marion, to prepare a will for him. This was done, and he executed this will in the presence of two witnesses. By the terms of this paper, as shown by a typewritten copy, he provided for the upkeep of a cemetery lot, a bequest to Tate’s Chapel, and a legacy to an old employee. All of the remainder of the estate was given to the Marion National Bank as trustee, to be held by it in trust for the benefit of his widow, Florence Lee Tate, during her fife, and twenty-one years after her death the estate was to be divided as follows: To B. T. Wren, ten per cent; to W. H. Wren ten per cent; to J. H. Wren twenty per cent; to J. Robert Wren ten per cent; to Edith j. Whitney twenty per cent; to James D. Mahoney twenty per cent; and to Emily Jeffry Williams ten per cent. During the period of twenty-one years after the death of Mrs. Tate the income was to be distributed to the beneficiaries in like proportions. Mrs. Williams was the niece of Mrs. Tate, but no blood relation of the decedent.

On account of a controversy between him and an officer of the Marion National Bank, Col. Tate was considering changing his executor, that bank having been named as the sole executor. Mr. Wolfe, the cashier of the bank, implored him not to make the change;

Some time in the early spring of 1939, he began to consider making a new will and preparing it in his own hand[778]*778writing. He again approached Mr. Dickinson and requested that Mr. Dickinson draft a form or typewritten paper which he, Col. Tate, would take home with him and from it make his will in his handwriting. Mr. Dickinson stated in his testimony that Col. Tate said when this draft was delivered to him, “And when I get it to suit me I will write it out in my own handwriting.”

Although the form of will prepared by Mr. Dickinson was the result of considerable thought and many conferences, it was never seen again.

Mr. Dickinson testified that after he had delivered this form to Col. Tate, he inquired as to what would be the devolution of his estate in the event he left no will. Mr. Dickinson informed him of the law on the subject and prepared a memorandum in which he described the course of' descent under the Virginia statute. This memorandum was found in Col. Tate’s papers after his death and properly identified by Mr. Dickinson as the memorandum delivered by him to Col. Tate.

Mr. Dickinson, at the time he conferred with Col. Tate about preparing the 1939 paper, informed him that under the United States statutes the Marion National Bank, the named executor, could not vote the stock in that institution belonging to the estate and that it would be necessary to confer the voting power upon a co-executor. This suggestion was followed in the drafting of the paper. Mr. Fred C. Buck, president of a bank in Abingdon, Virginia, was named as the co-executor.

Col. Tate attended the Bankers Convention in Bermuda in May, 1939, and there conferred with Mr. Fred C. Buck. According to the testimony he told Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
185 Va. 773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tate-v-wren-va-1946.