Kultz v. Jaeger
Kultz v. Jaeger
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
There was no evidence which would have justified the jury in returning a negative answer to the first issue; indeed, there was no evidence that Hannah Jaeger lacked testamentary capacity. The evidence was all the other way, and the declarations of the testatrix were excluded by the court because they were offered upon the issue relating to undue influence only.
The second issue was properly answered in the affirmative. That Hannah Jaeger executed this will was undisputed.
We have substantially stated the testimony which relates to the third issue, — the inquiry whether or not the will was procured by the undue influence of Frank Jaeger. When a wife, as in this instance, makes a will devising all of her estate to her husband, there is no inference of undue influence merely from that fact. These parties had lived together as husband and wife for about ten years, and the testimony shows that often during that period they quarreled, and that the husband had been abusive and threatening toward his wife; but it appears that they lived together, and did not separate. The court below remarked that the witnesses to the will bore strong testimony as to
The age of the testatrix does not appear. The evidence indicates that she was in the prime of life; that she had considerable business capacity, and had attended to business until the day Avhen she executed the will; and the evidence shows that she had been and was then of sound and disposing mind and capable of executing this will; and the Supreme Court has announced the rule that the will of a person found to be possessed of sound mind and memory is not to be set aside on eAÚdence tending to show only a possibility or suspicion of undue influence. Beyer v. Le Fevre, 186 U. S. 126, 46 L. ed. 1085, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 765. There is no presumption of law that a devise to the husband by his wife is fraudulent. That a wife should devise her property, or some of it, to her husband, is not unnatural, nor is it suggestive of undue influence. Montgomery v. Craig, 128 Ind. 48, 27 N. E. 427; Orth v. Orth, 145 Ind. 184, 32 L.R.A. 309, 57 Am. St. Rep. 185, 42 N. E. 277, 44 N. E. 17.
Her personal estate was principally $4,000 or $5,000 in money in a building association. Her real estate was an undiA'ided half of íavo houses and lots worth about $5,000, and an
Under all the circumstances, we cannot reverse his conclusion in respect of the third issue of undue influence. The declarations of the testatrix, made before and after the execution of this paper, were excluded because they could only relate to this last issue. It is assigned as error that the court erred in excluding all the testimony concerning the relations between Hannah and Frank Jaeger prior to the execution of this paper. The evidence we have recited shows that the court very liberally admitted evidence of frequent quarrels and disputes between them. There is no reversible error here.
It is claimed that the court erred in excluding the declarations of his wife concerning her relations with her husband before and
“When they are not a part of the res gestae, declarations of this nature are excluded because they are unsworn, being hearsay only; and where they are claimed to be admissible on the ground that they are said to indicate the condition of mind of the deceased with regard to his affections, they are still unsworn declarations, and they cannot be admitted if other unsworn declarations are excluded. In other words, there is no ground for
We therefore hold that the court below committed no error in excluding proof of the declarations of Hannah Jaeger, before and after the execution of this paper, concerning her testamentary intentions, or concerning her relations with her husband, her mother, and her sister prior to its execution.
The fourth assignment of error insists the court erred in excluding testimony tending to show that the testatrix was ignorant of the fact that she had executed the alleged will. Prom the record we cannot find that such testimony was offered.
The court did not err in excluding from the jury the statement of Christina McGuigan that about 1898 she found her sister Hannah lying panting in the vestibule of Christina’s house, and that thereafter Prank Jaeger made the remarks which we have before mentioned; nor did the court err in excluding the testimony of Mrs. Carl Jaeger that, eight years before her death, Hannah Jaeger ran into her house, saying that Prank Jaeger had threatened to kill her. This evidence of quarrels between the husband and wife occurring five years and eight years before the death of Hannah Jaeger was followed by long intervals wherein this couple lived together amicably. They never separated, and during the last few months of Hannah Jaeger’s life they dwelt together in comparative quiet and peace.
The court properly rejected the testimony of the witness Turner that three and a half years before the death of Hannah Jaeger, when he was making repairs upon the house of Mrs. Kultz, he saw Mrs. Jaeger in tears, and in his opinion her manner toward Prank Jaeger was that of a woman who was cowed and intimidated, and she was very humble before her husband. Such an opinion was not admissible.
We have thus disposed of all the exceptions to testimony we need consider.
Appellants’ counsel insist that the alleged will should be held to be an incomplete-testamentary paper because as it is written
This paper not only appoints an executor, but intends to devise and bequeath real and personal property, in language which we do not here need to interpret, and also contains a residuary clause with two blanks for names, the effect of which we need not here consider. It suffices upon these issues to say that the whole papei’, taken together, shows on its face that it was executed animo testandi; that the person who executed it did so intending to dispose of all her estate and to name her executor; and it was witnessed properly as a will conveying real estate. The contents and execution of the paper conclusively prove it to be in that sense a complete paper, — a testamentary disposition of property which should be admitted to probate. Whether the devises and bequests, or any of them, be invalid or in part ineffective, we may not upon these issues inquire. The formal paper contains the blanks where the names of the residuary beneficiaries should appear, but the omissions do not determine that the testatrix did not intend the paper, as it stood, to be her will. On the contrary, it is a complete and finished paper, executed and published animo testandi, without anything further to be done in order to perfect it. These omissions alone do not make it an invalid will.
The judgment of the Court below must be affirmed, with costs, and it is so ordered.
Reference
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- KULTZ v. JAEGER
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- Syllabus
- Wills; Undue Influence; Husband and Wife; Presumptions; Evidence; Declarations as Evidence; Animo Testandi. 1. The will of a person of sound mind and memory is not to be set aside on evidence tending to show only a possibility or suspicion of undue influence. 2. There is no presumption of law that a devise by a wife of all of her estate to her husband is fraudulent; nor is it suggestive of undue influence. 3. Upori the review of the testimony in a contest involving the validity of a will by which the testatrix left her entire estate to her husband, showing repeated quarrels between the couple, and instances of ill treatment of the wife by the husband for some years prior to the making of the will, but not negativing forgiveness by her; and also showing anxiety on his part that she should make such a will, and that he went for the person who prepared it and for another who witnessed it, but not showing that he urged his wife to make it, or that she yielded to any importunity on his part, or that he was present when it was executed, — the action of the trial court in directing a verdict for the caveatees on the issue of undue influence, it having been conceded that the testatrix was of sound mind, was held not to be error, on the ground that the evidence did no more than to raise a suspicion of undue influence. 4. Where the disputed issue in a will contest is as to whether undue influence was exercised on the testatrix, evidence of her declarations, both before and after the execution of the will, as to her testamentary intentions and concerning her relations with the beneficiary under the will and her next of kin, are inadmissible, when not a part of the res gestee. 5. Evidence of quarrels between husband and wife five and eight years before the execution of a will by her leaving her entire estate to him are inadmissible in a proceeding by her heirs and next of kin, attacking validity of the will, where there is also evidence that such quarrels were followed by long intervals during which they lived together amicably. 6. Testimony by a witness in a will contest, in which the husband of the testatrix is charged with the exercise of undue influence upon her, is properly rejected when to the effect that three and a half years before the will was made he saw the testatrix in tears, and in his opinion her manner towards her husband was that of a woman who was cowed and intimidated, and that she was very humble before him, as such an opinion is inadmissible. 7. A paper which is not operative as a will disposing of property may yet be good as a testamentary appointment of an executor; and such a paper may be admitted to probate, if, looking at the entire paper, it is clear it was executed animo testandi. 8. Whether devises and bequests, or any of them, made by a paper writing purporting to be a will, are invalid or in any way ineffective, will not be determined in a proceeding attacking the validity of the paper as a will on the grounds of want of testamentary capacity on the part of the person making it, and the exercise upon him of undue influence. 9. Failure to fill in blanks left for the names of the residuary legatees or devisees will not invalidate a will, where otherwise it is a complete and finished paper, executed and published animo testandi.