Board of Education of Pickaway Township Rural School District v. Phillips
Board of Education of Pickaway Township Rural School District v. Phillips
Opinion of the Court
This was a suit brought in the common pleas of Pickaway to set aside the last will and testament of Nelson Hitler, deceased, which had been admitted to'probate in the probate court of that county in February, 1917. .
An issue was made up and a large amount of testimony was introduced by both parties touching the testamentary capacity of the testator at the time of the execution of the will and also whether undue influence had been exerted to induce its execution.
On the conclusion of the evidence, and before argument, counsel for both sides presented requests to charge with reference to the issue of the testamentary capacity of the testator and with reference to the issue of undue influence. At that stage all seemed to regard the question of undue influence as an issue in the case for the determination of the
The testator was past 82 years at the time of the execution of his will in July, 1915, and died about 18 months thereafter. At his death, he owned about 2400 acres of land and considerable personal property. Some of the land was ancestral and the balance he purchased. He was a bachelor, and for some years previous to and up to the time of his death George Steeley and his wife resided with him at his homestead and boarded and cared for him. The will provides for the sale of the testator’s real and personal property, the payment of some specific legacies to relatives and to a cemetery association, and then provides: “All the rest and residue of my estate to the Board of Education of Pickaway Township Rural School District in Pick-away county, Ohio, to be judiciously and carefully invested by said board and the interest or dividends arising from said investment is to be applied in perpetuity, in connection with the other school funds of said district, to the support and maintenance of the centralized schools of said Pickaway Township Rural School District and to the purchase of books and the upkeep of the library in said centralized school building.”
The sole question presented in this proceeding in error is whether the evidence introduced by the contestants was sufficient to overcome the prima facie case made by the order of probate.
In the recent case of. Clark v. McFarland, 99 Ohio St., 100, the following rule is declared in the syllabus:
“In proceedings in contest of a last will and testament, a motion to direct a verdict in behalf of the proponents of the will, at the close of the evidence of the contestants, must be overruled by the court, if some evidence has been offered in support of the issues involved.”
As already stated there was considerable evidence touching the relation of Steeley and Mr. Hitler’s attorney to him, and their connection with the circumstances attending the execution of the will. Steeley was appointed executor by the will
The will requires the real estate to be sold and the proceeds * invested in a class of investments which the evidence tends to show the testator had in the course of his long and successful business life avoided.
There was also evidence of conversations with the testator by persons interested in the schools touching the subject of gifts to such objects, and as pointed out, the bulk of his estate was given to the Board of Education of Pickaway township.
As already stated, the record is a very voluminous one. A very large amount of testimony was introduced by the parties with reference to the two issues named. There was considerable Evidence in support of the contestants’ claim as to the incapacity and mental weakness from old age of the testator at the time he made the will, and, while the- verdict
The facts that Steeley was appointed executor by the will, was the beneficiary named in one of its items, and sustained the intimate relations with the testator, as above stated, so that he was in a position to exert influence over the old gentleman, are not in themselves evidence that he actually did so as to this will. But all of these circumstances in relation to the attorney and to Mr. Steeley, as well as the evidence concerning the mental and physical condition.of the testator, his habits of life, his conversations (touching any of the subjects dealt with in his will) with other persons more or less interested, the provisions of the will itself, all of these matters present a situation for the consideration of the jury.
Although it might be conceded that if the determination of the ultimate fact in issue had been left to the trial judge he might properly have found against the contestants, that is not the situation pre
As said in Vignola v. New York Central Rd. Co., 102 Ohio St., 194: “In order that an issue should be required to be submitted to the jury, it is not essential that there be such a conflict in the testimony of different witnesses as makes it necessary for the jury to determine disputes or questions of veracity. That is not the only province of the jury. Where there is no conflict in the testimony, but nevertheless the unconflicting testimony discloses a variety of circumstances from which different minds may reasonably arrive at different conclusions as to the ultimate facts shown by the evidence, it is the duty of the jury to determine such ultimate fact.”
It is much to be regretted that the delay and the expense necessary to a retrial of this case must again be undergone. But we feel compelled to agree with the court of appeals that the court of common pleas erred in holding that there was no evidence tending to support the issue of undue influence and in withdrawing that issue from the con-¿deration of the jury.
Judgement affirmed
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The Board of Education of Pickaway Township Rural School District v. Phillips
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Wills — Contest-—-Testamentary capacity and undue influence — Issues for jury, when — Scintilla of evidence.