Witthoft v. Gathe

221 P. 124, 38 Idaho 175, 1923 Ida. LEXIS 65
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 3, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 221 P. 124 (Witthoft v. Gathe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Witthoft v. Gathe, 221 P. 124, 38 Idaho 175, 1923 Ida. LEXIS 65 (Idaho 1923).

Opinion

BUDGE, C. J.

— From the record in this case it appears that Theodore A. Gathe and Henry A. M. Witthoft became partners in the year 1901, which partnership continued until 1912, when a corporation was organized which took over the partnership property. The interests of the part[178]*178ners were thereafter represented by stock in the corporation. Prior to the formation of the corporation, about 1910, Witthoft became more or less' indisposed and his health began to break. In the same year Witthoft and Gathe made wills, each becoming a beneficiary under the other’s will. On May 22, 1913, Witthoft gave to his former partner, Gathe, a full and absolute power of attorney, which was never revoked. In the early part of 1914 Witthoft went to Kiel, Germany, and later entered a nerve clinic in that city where he received medical treatment. Thereafter, about the month of April, 1914, he returned to the United States and on March 17, 1915, he married respondent, Sophia Barbara Margareta Witthoft, with whom he lived until the date of his death on March 27, 1917. He left surviving him the respondent and a daughter aged fifteen months.

In the month of August, 1917, respondent filed her petition for letters of administration and in September, 1917, she was appointed administratrix of the estate of her deceased husband and in October, 1917, brought an action, as administratrix, in the district court, against appellant and others, for the purpose of obtaining possession of property held by them and to which they claimed ownership by reason of a certain letter referred to in the record as “the letter of explanation,” which purports to make an assignment of stock in the corporation known as the Commercial Development and Investment Company, under the terms of which letter of explanation appellant was to receive twenty-five shares of the stock in said corporation standing in the name of the deceased, Witthoft. The final determination of this particular action, under stipulation of counsel, is to be governed by the disposition made of the instant ease.

On the 5th day of December, 1917, approximately nine months after the death of Witthoft, appellant filed for probate a document purporting to be the last will and testament of Henry A. M. Witthoft. In the probate court respondent contested the application of appellant for probate of the alleged will. Upon a hearing had before that [179]*179court the will was rejected. Thereafter an. appeal was taken to the district court, which resulted in the will being again rejected. Prior to the entry of the judgment appellant moved the court for judgment non obstante veredicto•, which motion was, by the court, overruled and judgment on the verdict was thereafter entered rejecting the will, from which judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial this appeal is prosecuted.

Appellant specifies and relies upon twenty-three assignments of error. The first fourteen errors assigned involve the action of the court in the giving and refusing to give certain instructions to the jury. These errors cannot be reviewed by this court for the reason that the instructions are not called for by the praecipe, they are not included in the reporter’s transcript settled and allowed by the trial court, and are not included in the clerk’s certificate to the clerk’s transcript. (C. S., secs. 7163, 7166 and 7167; Sweaney & Smith Co. v. St. Paul Ins. Co., 35 Ida. 303, 206 Pac. 178; Stringer v. Redfield, 34 Ida. 378, 201 Pac. 714.)

The fifteenth assignment of error involves the action of the court in submitting to the jury certain interrogatories, which, with the answers of the jury, are aS follows:

Interrogatory No. 1: “At the time of the execution of the will herein in question, was said Henry A. M. Witthoft acting under undue influence, as in these instructions defined 1 ’ ’
Answer: “Tes.”
Interrogatory No. 2: “At the time of the execution of the will here in question, was said Henry A. M. Witthoft of sound mindl”
Answer: “No.”

It is the contention of appellant that the above interrogatories submitted to the jury and their answers thereto are inconsistent, antagonistic and contradictory and therefore a new trial should be granted. In support of this contention appellant relies upon the ease of Gwin v. Gwin, 5 Ida. 271, 48 Pac. 295; That case is not in point for the reason that the jury in that case found that the deceased, at the [180]*180time of the making of the will, was competent to make it and also found that the deceased at the time of making said will was not of sound and disposing mind. These two findings are inconsistent and contradictory and the court properly held that a new trial should be granted for that reason. The distinction between the case at bar and the Gwin ease is that in the latter the special findings would authorize different judgments while in the instant ease different judgments based upon the special findings would not be authorized.

In a similar case, In re Murphy’s Estate, 43 Mont. 353, Ann. Cas. 19120, 380, 116 Pac. 1004, where the jury found that the testator was not competent to make a will and was also unduly influenced, the court said:

“But counsel say that the two findings are inconsistent, in that the one negatives the existence of the fact found in the other; in other words, that the finding that the deceased executed the alleged will under the impulse of undue influence exerted by the defendant implied testamentary capacity. A person enfeebled in mind and body, though still retaining testamentary capacity, may be more readily swayed and influenced by those about him, than when in his normal condition; yet, in a legal sense, undue influence cannot be exerted upon a person who is so far insane or unconscious as to he destitute of testamentary capacity. (Gwin v. Gwin, 5 Ida. 271, 48 Pac. 295; Stirling v. Stirling, 64 Md. 139, 21 Atl. 273; 29 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 2d ed., 104.) When in this condition a person is without intelligent volition; he is for that reason not legally responsible for his acts, whether they are prompted by others or not. Undue influence imposes a restraint on the will of the testator, who, but for the restraint, would be free and responsible, so that his testamentary act is not the result of Ms own volition, but of the will of another. Therefore the findings involve conclusions which cannot logically stand together, and in this sense are inconsistent; yet they are not inconsistent in the sense that each requires the rendition of a different judgment and thus mutually destroy each [181]*181other. This is the test by which must be determined the question whether the judgment as rendered should be allowed to stand.
“The findings are not so intimately connected that error in the one implies error in the other. Hence, if either be supported by the evidence, and it does not appear that substantial error intervened affecting it, the other may be regarded as immaterial. (Dexter v. Codman, 148 Mass. 421, 19 N. E. 517.) In this case it was said: ‘It is a mistaken assumption that the issues as to sanity and undue influence, in a case of this kind, are necessarily so connected that error in a finding upon one of them implies error in the finding upon the other. In many cases, perhaps in most, they are very closely connected. In some the connection is slight and unimportant.

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Bluebook (online)
221 P. 124, 38 Idaho 175, 1923 Ida. LEXIS 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/witthoft-v-gathe-idaho-1923.