Cressman's Estate
Cressman's Estate
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from an order dismissing a petition for an issue devisavit vel non which was asked for on the grounds of want of testamentary capacity and of the exercise of undue influence. The undisputed facts were that the testator died at the age of seventy-five, four years after the death of his wife and daughter, leaving personal estate, after the payment of debts, of $3,500 and real estate worth approximately $2,500, and but one lineal descendant, a grandson, the contestant, who was a minor. After his wife’s death the testator had sold his home and lived for a time with his niece, and during the last three years' of his life he boarded with Mrs. Werkheiser, a widow, sixty-eight years of age. His will was made more than two years before his death and by it he gave a small legacy in trust for the care of his cemetery lot, directed that his son-in-law should not, under any circumstances, receive a part of his estate, devised his
In the petition for an issue it was alleged that the testator’s mind had been impaired by disease and that he was readily influenced by Mrs. Werkheiser with whom he had maintained a meretricious relation and that she had induced him to destroy a former will in favor of his grandson and by constraint and domination had secured the making of the will in question. There was no satisfactory evidence in support of these allegations and all of them were denied. It was shown that the decedent transacted his own business, consisting of the collection of interest and rents, the repair of his houses and the payment of his bills, insurance premiums and taxes and that he frequently visited his friends and relatives and was visited by them. If the existence of a meretricious relation had been established it would not of itself have been sufficient evidence of coercion or restraint in connection with the making of the will: Allshouse v. Kelly,
The order appealed from is affirmed at the cost of the appellant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.