White v. Smith

276 S.W.2d 359, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2484
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 17, 1955
DocketNo. 3240
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 276 S.W.2d 359 (White v. Smith) 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
White v. Smith, 276 S.W.2d 359, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2484 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

TIREY, Justice.

This cause involves the contest of the last will and testament of Daisy M. Gill. Her will was admitted to probate by the County Court of Chambers County. Contestants seasonably perfected their appeal to the District Court. At the conclusion of the testimony the trial court overruled proponent’s motion for an instructed verdict and submitted the case to the jury on two issues, as follows:

“(1) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, that at the time Daisy Gill executed the purported will, which has been offered in evidence for probate on this trial as her last will and testament; she possessed testamentary capacity, as that term is defined to you below?”, to which the jury answered “Yes”.

■ The court instructed the jury with reference to this issue:

“By the words ‘testamentary capacity’ is meant that the person making the will must, at the time the will is executed, have sufficient ability to understand the business in which she is engaged, Ae effect of her acts in making the will, the capacity to know the objects of her bounty and their claims upon her, and the general nature of her property.”
“(2) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, that the making and execution of the instrument which is sought to be probated here as the last will and testament of Daisy M. Gill, and which is in evidence before you, dated January 26, 1950, was procured through undue influence, if any, exerted upon her by Modesto White, as the term ‘undue influence’ is hereinafter defined?”, to which the jury answered “Yes”.

In connection with Issue 2 the court gave the following instruction:

“ * * * you are instructed that by the term ‘undue influence’ as used in this charge, is meant influence ex[360]*360erted upon the testatrix which compelled her to do that which is against ■her will from a desire of peace, or because of weakness, or from some feeling which she is unable to resist.
“To constitute undue influence it is not necessary that any overt act or acts of influence be exerted at the very time the will is executed, but it is necessary that through the existence of an influence previously exerted and which is operating upon the testatrix at the very time the will is executed, her free agency at that time is destroyed and an instrument results which does not represent the wishes of the testatrix but represents the wishes of the person exercising the influence.” (These instructions are not here assailed).

The court overruled proponent’s motion to disregard the jury’s answer to Issue 2, granted contestants’ motion for judgment, refused to admit the will to probate, declared the will tendered for probate to be null and void, set aside the proceedings in the County Court of Chambers County admitting the will to probate, and ordered that the judgment of the District Court be certified to the County Court of Chambers County for observance.

The proponent seasonably perfected his appeal to the Galveston Court of Civil Appeals and the cause has been transferred to this court by order of the Supreme Court.

Appellant’s brief assails the judgment on what he designates as eleven points. Point 1 is substantially to the effect that the court erred in submitting Issue 2 to the jury and entering judgment for contestants upon the answer of the jury thereto, because the issue of undue influence on the testatrix was not tendered by the evidence, and there is no evidence of probative force to sustain the jury’s affirmative answer thereto, and that by reason thereof the court should have granted his motion to disregard the answer to Issue 2 and admitted the will to probate. We sustain these contentions. Points 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 tender substantially the same point. Appellees’ 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Counter Points challenge the correctness of appellant’s contentions. The testimony and exhibits tendered are in excess of 900 pages, and the fact that appellant and appellees cannot agree on the effect of the testimony tendered requires us to make a very careful examination of the entire evidence adduced on the question of undue influence. In approaching this task we must keep in mind the rules announced by our Supreme Court and particularly the last expressions thereon in order to apply the rule of law applicable to the factual situation here. In so doing we must keep in mind the statement of the rule in Olds v. Traylor, Tex.Civ.App., 180 S.W.2d 511 (writ ref.) and determine whether there is in this record any admissible evidence of probative force, direct or circumstantial, raising the pleaded issue that the will in question was the product of undue influence. In so doing we must also bear in mind that where the facts are controverted; or are such that different inferences may be reasonably drawn therefrom, an issue of fact is raised; it is only where the evidence is harmonious and consistent, and the circumstances permit of but one conclusion, that the question becomes one of law for the determination of the court. An issue of fact is raised if, discarding all adverse evidence and giving credit to all evidence favorable to the appellees, and indulging every legitimate inference favorable to the appellees which might have been drawn from the facts proved, a jury might have found in favor of the appel-lees. The foregoing is substantially the statement of the rule by this court in Olds v. Traylor, supra. In applying these rules to the factual situation here, it is also our duty to bear in mind that the influence, if any, exerted on the testatrix was not undue unless the free agency of the testatrix was destroyed that caused the testatrix to execute a will that she did not desire to make. Also-, we must keep in mind the restatement of the rule in Burt v. Lochausen, 151 Tex. 289, 249 S.W.2d 194, 199, points 5, 6 and 7, bearing particularly in mind that while the jury is the judge of the facts proved and the inferences to be drawn, such [361]*361inferences must not be unreasonable. Moreover, we think the applicable law must be applied in the light of the last expression of our Supreme Court, which is found in Curry v. Curry, 270 S.W.2d 208, and Pool v. Boyer, Tex.Civ.App., 268 S.W.2d 223, now under submission in the Supreme Court. These two cases are controlling and binding upon us.

Daisy M. Gill executed the will in question on January 26, 1950, at which time she was approximately 73 years old. She had inherited from her mother an undivided one-eighth interest in approximately 8,000 acres of land, on which land oil had been developed, and testimony was tendered to the effect that she was a woman of strong mind, and that she possessed the family characteristic of doing exactly what she wanted to do and no one could persuade her otherwise. She died on November 27, 1952. Her will gave all of her property to her brother Modesto White and her nephew Clifford White, son of Modesto. She had been married one time only and had no children born to her and her husband predeceased her. Evidence was tendered to the effect that on March 18, 1949, the testatrix wrote a letter in her own handwriting to the Hon. W. P.

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Bluebook (online)
276 S.W.2d 359, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-smith-texapp-1955.