Cunningham v. Cozzort
Cunningham v. Cozzort
Opinion of the Court
1. Special ground numbered 13 of the defendant’s amended motion for new trial complains of the admission into evidence of the will allegedly executed by the deceased on August 11, 1959, after the will which was allegedly executed on January 15, 1958, which will was probated by the defendant. The objection to such evidence was that the will dated August 11, 1959 was not proved to the extent necessary to probate it in solemn form in that the necessary witnesses were not produced.
One of the subscribing witnesses to such will testified as to its execution and that he and the other witnesses shown on such will did witness its execution by the deceased. Under the decision of the Supreme Court in Cooper v. O’Brien, 98 Ga. 773, 774 (26 SE 470), and cases there cited, this testimony by one of the subscribing witnesses was sufficient to authorize the admission of the alleged will dated August 11, 1959, into evidence. Moreover, the testimony of such witness would have authorized the probate of such will in common form. See Code Ann. § 113-601. The judgment granting a new trial because such will was admitted into evidence over the defendant’s objection was error since the issue as to whether the second will is entitled to be probated in solemn form must be decided when offered for probate, and could not be decided in the present action where the question was whether: “the instrument thus propounded and admitted to probate was in fact not the last will and testament
2. With the second will properly introduced into evidence, and the testimony of the defendant that he knew of the existence of such purported will at the time he offered the first will for probate, the verdict directed by the trial court was demanded by the evidence. The other grounds of the defendant’s motion for new trial, on which the new trial was granted, whether meritorious or not would not change such result, and the judgment granting the defendant’s motion for new trial must be reversed.
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.