Woods v. Stonecipher.
Woods v. Stonecipher.
Opinion
This appeal concerns a dispute over a will executed in 2010 by Charlotte Blalock. The will names Blalock's granddaughter, Amber Stonecipher, as executor. When Stonecipher petitioned to probate the will, Nancy Woods, who was Blalock's daughter and Stonecipher's aunt, filed a caveat challenging the will on the grounds that Blalock lacked testamentary capacity and was either under duress or unduly influenced when she signed it. Woods also sought to have the estate pay an outstanding debt secured by real property that she and Blalock jointly owned, with rights of survivorship, at the time of Blalock's death.
On a de novo appeal from various probate court rulings, and following a bench trial, the superior court upheld the 2010 will and held that the estate had no obligation to pay the outstanding debt secured by the real property. Woods challenges both of these rulings on appeal. We affirm the ruling upholding the will because the evidence supported the superior court's findings that Blalock was competent to make it and that she was neither under duress nor unduly influenced at the time. But we reverse the ruling regarding the outstanding debt because the language of the will clearly expresses the intention that the estate pay that debt.
1. Ruling upholding 2010 will.
The parties strongly contest the facts relevant to the superior court's decision to uphold the 2010 will, and at the bench trial they presented conflicting evidence on that issue. On appeal, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the decision. See
Burchard v. Corrington
,
So viewed, the evidence presented to the superior court shows that Blalock executed the will in question on November 30, 2010. Her health was in decline at the time, and earlier in the year she had asked Stonecipher to move into her house to help her. Blalock had raised Stonecipher from the time Stonecipher was a young girl and the two had a mother-daughter relationship. Stonecipher became Blalock's primary caregiver; she helped Blalock maintain the house, took her to medical appointments, and performed other services for her.
In late October or early November, 2010, Blalock told Stonecipher that she wanted to update her will. Stonecipher hired an attorney, who reviewed Blalock's prior will and information from Blalock that he received through Stonecipher, met with Blalock in person twice at Blalock's home to discuss the will's terms, gave her a copy of a draft will to review, and made corrections to it at her direction. The final draft of the new will differed from Blalock's former will in three main ways: by naming Stonecipher executor; by giving the house in which Blalock then lived to Stonecipher; and by making Stonecipher the residual legatee.
Blalock signed the new will on November 30, 2010 in the presence of the attorney, Stonecipher, and two neighbors who had known her for many years. She also signed a self-executing affidavit in which she averred, among other things, that the 2010 will was her "last will and testament[,] that [she] had willingly made and executed it as a free act and deed for the purposes expressed therein[, and] that she was ... of sound mind[.]" The two subscribing witnesses signed this affidavit as well. Blalock also executed, before the two witnesses, a power of attorney in favor of Stonecipher.
The two subscribing witnesses signed a separate affidavit in which they testified, among other things, that Blalock had "declared the instrument to be her will" and "was, at the time the will was executed, over the age of eighteen, and, to the best of the knowledge of [the subscribing witnesses], of sound mind and not under any constraint or in any respect incompetent to make a will." When she executed the 2010 will, Blalock seemed coherent and aware, with a good understanding of what was happening. She had read the will. She indicated to one of the *636 subscribing witnesses 1 that she knew she was signing a new will. She told him she had worked with the attorney to draft the new will and that it was what she wanted. She did not appear confused or under duress, and it did not appear that she had been influenced to sign the new will.
In his order upholding the 2010 will, the superior court found that Blalock "was able to make competent decisions at the time of the execution of [the will], that there [was] insufficient evidence to show that [she] was unduly influenced in the making or execution of [the will], and that there [was] insufficient evidence to show that [she] was under duress at the time of the making and execution of [the will]." Woods argues on appeal that the evidence did not authorize the superior court to make these findings. But she must clear a high hurdle to prevail on this claim of error. On appeal, we will not disturb the factfinder's determination if it supported by any evidence. See
Meadows v. Beam
,
(a) Testamentary capacity.
Woods's challenge to Blalock's competence is a challenge to her testamentary capacity. "Testamentary capacity exists when the testator has a decided and rational desire as to the disposition of property." OCGA § 53-4-11 (a). The requirement of testamentary capacity
is fulfilled with a showing that the testator understood that the will had the effect of disposing of her property at the time of her death, was capable of remembering generally what property was subject to disposition by will, was capable of remembering those persons related to her, and was capable of expressing an intelligent scheme of disposition.
Meadows
,
Stonecipher presented evidence which supported the superior court's finding that Blalock had the necessary testamentary capacity to make the 2010 will. Persons present when Blalock executed the will testified that she was lucid and understood what she was doing. See
Amerson v. Pahl
,
The trial evidence did not compel a finding that Woods rebutted the presumption of Blalock's testamentary capacity. There was evidence of Blalock's fragility around the time she signed the will; she was in failing health and under hospice care, on medication, confined to her bed, and sometimes confused. But "[n]either advancing age nor weakness of intellect nor eccentricity of habit or thought is inconsistent with testamentary capacity to make a will." OCGA § 53-4-11 (d). "[T]estamentary capacity may be possessed by weak-minded or feeble individuals. And anything less than a total absence of mind does not destroy testamentary capacity."
Meadows , supra at 498,
Woods argues that the provision in the 2010 will purporting to give to Stonecipher the house in which Blalock lived shows Blalock's lack of testamentary capacity, because Blalock's ownership interest in that property - a joint tenancy with Woods with survivorship rights - was not subject to disposition by will. Viewed in the light most favorable to the superior court's judgment, however, Blalock's attempt to dispose of the house by will suggests that she simply did not understand the legal ramifications of her joint-tenancy ownership interest. Given the other evidence of Blalock's testamentary capacity, the superior court was not compelled to find that Blalock was not "capable of remembering
generally
what property was subject to disposition by will[.]"
Meadows , supra (emphasis supplied). See
Webb
, supra at 761,
(b) Undue influence and duress.
"A will must be freely and voluntarily executed. A will is not valid if anything destroys the testator's freedom of volition, such as ... duress[ ] or undue influence whereby the will of another is substituted for the wishes of the testator." OCGA § 53-4-12. "To invalidate a will, undue influence must amount to deception or coercion that destroys the testator's free agency."
Amerson
,
We find no error. "The testimony of those who witnessed the execution of the will supports the finding that [Blalock] executed it freely and voluntarily."
Amerson
,
2. Ruling regarding outstanding secured debt.
Woods challenges the superior court's ruling that the estate was not responsible for paying an outstanding debt of Blalock's that was secured by the real property that passed to Woods outside of the estate. This ruling conflicts with the terms of Blalock's will, so we reverse.
At the time of Blalock's death, she and Woods held joint title, with rights of survivorship, to the house in which Blalock lived. Woods became the sole owner of that property upon Blalock's death without the property
*638
passing through Blalock's estate. See
Manders v. King
,
The question of whether the estate is liable for the outstanding debt on that loan turns on the language of Blalock's will. Georgia adheres to the common-law doctrine of exoneration.
Manders
,
Pertinently, Blalock's will states: "I direct that all debts, costs and expenses be paid out of the Residuary Estate and not be paid out of, charged or apportioned to or contributed by ... any recipient or joint-owner of any property passing outside this will[.]" This provision clearly expresses the intent that the estate, rather than Woods, will be responsible for paying Blalock's outstanding debt encumbering the property that passed outside the will to Woods, a joint tenant with right of survivorship. The superior court erred in ruling otherwise.
Judgment affirmed in part, reversed in part.
Rickman and Markle, JJ., concur.
Only one of the two subscribing witnesses testified at the trial; the other was out of the state on vacation.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.