Williamson v. Hickman

391 S.W.2d 171, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2654
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 12, 1965
DocketNo. 11295
StatusPublished

This text of 391 S.W.2d 171 (Williamson v. Hickman) 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
Williamson v. Hickman, 391 S.W.2d 171, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2654 (Tex. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

HUGHES, Justice.

This is a will contest in which Tom Williamson,1 appellant, contested the will of his mother, Mrs. Edith Williamson, who died March 4, 1964, at the age of 83 years.

Appellee, P. V. Hickman, brother of decedent and named Independent Executor in the instrument offered by him for probate as the last will and testament of decedent was one of its principal beneficiaries. Appellant contested the probate of such instrument in the Probate Court on the grounds of undue influence exercised by appellee and lack of testamentary capacity of decedent. This contest was sustained and the instrument was denied probate. On appeal to the District Court, after trial to a jury and upon its verdict, the instrument was probated as the will of Mrs. Edith Williamson.

Appellant has four points or assignments of error in his brief three of which are based on the failure of the trial court to grant him a new trial because two of the jurors who sat in the case were employees of the First National Bank of Lampasas, the president of such bank being a material witness for appellee, and that the decedent was a customer of such bank and had transacted bank business with Mr. Mickey Bozarth, the bank’s employee and one of the jurors, and that had appellant known these facts he would not have accepted these two bank employees on the jury.

A hearing was held on the motion for a new trial and we will quote or state the substance of all testimony pertinent to the points under discussion.

Mr. Eddie Patrick, one of the jurors who was employed by the First National Bank, testified that when he was questioned on voir dire examination as a prospective juror he did not then know that the president of the bank, Mr. C. A. Northington, was to be a witness; that he answered all questions to the best of his knowledge.

Mr. Mickey Bozarth testified that he was an employee of the bank and that he knew when examined on voir dire that Mr. North-ington was to be a witness; that he then also knew that decedent had been a customer of the bank. As to his personal relations with her, we quote his testimony:

“Q. I will ask you whether or not you had personal contact with Mrs. Williamson on or about September 7, 1962?
A. I don’t think I did.
Q. To refresh your memory, that is the date that they broke into the bank deposit box?
A. I don’t remember how it was broken, but I don’t think that I broke it. The only thing that I can remember about it is the charge we made on it, but don’t remember about the breaking.
[173]*173Q. It came to light that you made the charge ?
A. That is right.
‡ * * S|C ⅜ ⅜
Q. Mrs. Williamson did most of her business at the First National Bank?
A. Yes.
Q. And you had contact with her from time to time ?
A. Not very much. I really did not know Mrs. Williamson very well.
Q. Well, who has charge of the safety deposit boxes?
A. Mr. R. A. Wright.
Q. But when the charge went through you signed your name?
A. I believe my name is stamped on there with a rubber pad, but I don’t really remember having done it. I probably did, though.
Q. This is the charge slip that came through. Is this your signature?
A. That is my signature, — no, that is a rubber stamp.
Q. Did anyone else have any authority to use that stamp ?
A. I don’t think that anyone used it but me but it was there available.”
Mr. Bozarth also testified:
“Q. Now, on your examination on voir dire did you acquaint either of the attorneys as to such information ?
A. You asked specific questions and so did Mr. Johnson, and I answered two or three of them but don’t remember exactly what they were.
Q. Do you remember that I asked the specific question if you had any knowledge or information of any kind that might influence in your verdict?
A. Yes, but I did not feel that this would in any way influence me and as I did not know anything about it.”

Mr. Bozarth also testified that he remembered a list of witnesses being read at the time of his examination.

The attorney for appellant, the Hon. J. J. Byrne, testified, and we quote from his testimony:

“ * * * I examined the jurors in said proceeding touching their service and qualification as jurors. I had no knowledge whatsoever that C. A. Northing-ton was a witness in behalf of the proponent. I had no knowledge whatsoever that Mickey Bozart had had business dealings with Mrs. Edith Williamson. If I had known that Mrs. Edith Williamson had had personal contact and business dealings with Mickey Bozart I would have exercised my prerogative to have challenged the serving of Mickey Bosart as well as Eddie Patrick. The attorney for the proponent did not use C. A. Northington in the trial of the case in the county court. Some of the witnesses that he used in this case appeared without summons. It is true that C. A. Northing-ton was under subpoena but this attorney had no knowledge or information from any source that C. A. Northington was going to be a witness in behalf of the proponent in the probate of this will. If this attorney, the contestant’s attorney, had had any knowledge or information that Mickey Bozart had had dealings with Mrs. Edith Williamson, or that C. A. Northington was going to be a witness in behalf of the proponent, C. A. Northington being the employer of Bozart and Patrick, both names would have been challenged.
[174]*174* ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ *
Q. Mr. Byrne, when did this matter first come to your attention, this short slip? September 2, 1962? The charge to Mrs. Williamson for drilling the deposit, safety deposit box, on which the signature of Mickey Bozart appears. When did that first occur?
A. In the trial of the case you will remember I jumped up and called to the attention of the court and we both came to his desk, and called the matter to his attention, and it was a shock to me.”

The Hon. R. L. Johnson, attorney for ap-pellee, also testified. He stated that he only called the names of the witnesses who were in the courtroom in order that they might be sworn. He did not call the name of Mr. Northington because he was not then present.

Mr. C. A. Northington testified that Mr. Byrne knew he was president of the First National Bank, and this is to be inferred from the testimony of Mr. Byrne.

The appellee introduced on the hearing a subpoena for Mr. Northington as a witness showing service on him on July 20, 1964. The trial was held on the 27th and 28th of July, 1964.

He also introduced a charge slip showing that the First National Bank had charged decedent's account with $10.00 for drilling and replacing a lock on a safety deposit box, which charge slip was signed by Mr. M. F. Bozarth.

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Bluebook (online)
391 S.W.2d 171, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2654, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williamson-v-hickman-texapp-1965.