McDonald v. Soule
McDonald v. Soule
Opinion of the Court
Marie C. Hanson, a spinster, at the age of 50 years on December 14, 1922, made what purports to be a will giving all her estate, real and personal, to David L. McDonald, who was in no way related to her. She died in July of 1932; the instrument was filed for probate on August 11, 1932. Mrs. Hannah H. Soule, deceased’s sister and only heir, filed a protest to the petition to admit the will to probate on the grounds that the decedent was not, on December 14, 1922, menally competent to make a will, and that Dr. David L. McDonald, while acting in the relation of a physician to her, by persuasion and pretended interest in the decedent and by false representations as to the protestant and her husband designed to stir up resentment against them, had gained a dominance over the mind of decedent, ingratiated himself into her trust and confidence, and by design and fraud and undue influence had caused her to make the purported will, which was in fact not her will. The answer to the protest admitted the proponent was a practicing physician, but generally denied all the other allegations of the complaint. The court found for the protestant, concluded that decedent was of unsound mind on December 14, 1922, and incompetent to make a will, and that proponent had
There are 28 assignments of error, 4 of which are amendments adding with more particularity to previous assignments. The assignments strike at rulings admitting and rejecting evidence, at the findings in whole and at particular parts thereof, at the conclusions and decree and at failure of the court below to make findings, conclusions, and decree favorable to proponent, and in refusing to admit the instrument to probate. We shall, when we come to discuss the rulings of the lower court, endeavor to treat these in groups as far as they permit of so doing.
The 4 findings of fact are in considerable detail. In substance, those parts which are undisputed are as follows: Decedent was born 1872. At 4 years of age she had an attack of spinal meningitis making her a semi-invalid and resulting in curvature of the spine, deformity in her back, and nervous troubles. For 12 years she wore braces of one sort or another. She had to wait until she was 10 years of age before she attended school. She was graduated from high school at nearly 22 years of age, suffering thereafter a nervous breakdown which for two years confined her to her room. Her family at that time consisted of her father and sister, the protestant. That during that time she suffered from uncontrollable laughing and crying spells. She lived with her father and sister until 1906 when her sister was married, and thereafter until 1909 lived! with her father alone. From 1909 to 1916 she and her father lived with protestant and her husband. In 1916 her father died. Thereafter, decedent lived with protestant’s family until her death on July 15, 1982, with the exception of a period from July 1, 1923, to July 1, 1924, during which
In 1911, Dr. McDonald appeared upon the scene. He had been a classmate of O. P. Soule, husband of protestant, from 1892 to 1894. Until 1911, Soule and McDonald saw each other only infrequently. In 1911, Soule invited McDonald to his home, and there introduced McDonald to his wife, to the decedent and her father. From 1913 to 1917, McDonald saw the decedent frequently. He denies it was in a professional capacity or that he ever treated her professionally for mental trouble, but in 1922 for a severe head and throat infection. In 1918, McDonald went to Idaho where he practiced medicine until 1921, when he returned to Salt Lake City and made his headquarters at Soule’s office, but denied he had a key to it or had access to the safe. From 1921 to 1923, he saw and talked to the decedent frequently. In December, 1922, McDonald wrote on his own typewriter the purported will left by decedent and on December 14th decedent went to his apartment, and while she was there, McDonald brought in two witnesses who, as far as the evidence shows, had never met or seen the decedent before. The instrument was signed by decedent and the two witnesses, and a few days later was given to McDonald, who had exclusive possession of it until decedent died in July of 1932. Decedent never told the protestant nor Mr. Soule that she had executed a will, and neither of them ever learned of the instrument until McDonald offered it for probate. McDonald, at the time of the execution of the instrument, was about 50 years of age. He had been married and divorced twice before that time.
The court further found she had (h) a “child mind — a mind that had not developed.” (i) During that period she wanted to live in the darkness when at home; would remain in her room with the window shades drawn and the room dark most of the time; (j) was afraid to go out alone at night in the darkness; (k) always tried to conceal her back; (1) would not look into a mirror and would turn the mirror in her room toward the wall and keep it that way. (m) She always wanted to be in the presence of one person at a time and when a third person appeared would hurry to her
We have prefixed the various phrases and clauses of this part of the findings with letters so as to avoid repeating them in the treatment of appellant’s assignments. Appellant McDonald assigned the whole of this finding as error, and particularly the parts above designated as (a), (d), (g), (q), (w,) (y), (z), (aa), (cc), and (dd). The appellant argues that these are all conclusions, and are unsupported by evidence. This is a law case. Therefore, we cannot disturb the findings if there is any competent evidence to support them. In re Swan’s Estate, 51 Utah 410, 170 P. 452. Moreover, since the case was .tried to the court and not to a jury, we must presume that the court ignored incompetent evidence in making a finding, if there is any substantial competent evidence to support it, especially where on a particular issue the incompetent evidence is quite negligible in comparison to the competent evidence. A case tried to the court with a long record of testimony cannot be sent back because here and there incompetent testimony creeps in, if there is otherwise competent testimony to support the findings. There cannot be any objection to conclusions of fact in findings if there is any competent evidence to support the conclusions. It is the business of the trial court to conclude from the basic competent testimony certain facts, which would therefore necessarily be conclusions. They would in many cases, being ultimate or subultimate facts, necessarily be conclusions or inferences derived from what may be called “sense” facts; that is, facts derived from the testimony of witnesses based on the observations or. use of the senses of such witnesses. But counsel for the appellant contends that the conclusions of the court contained in its finding No. 1 and above designated as clauses (a), (d), (g), (q), (w), (y, (z), (aa), (cc), and (dd), were founded on evidence which was not “sense” facts, but were themselves conclusions of witnesses. This, to an extent, is true. Decedent’s sister, Mrs. Hannah
The appellant moved to strike the testimony of the witness contained in clause (a) (assignment 2). The court denied the motion. It is hardly necessary to consider whether the court was in error in its refusal because the same idea occurs in the evidence in other words at points where no objection was taken or, at least, in regard to which no error was assigned. Moreover, for the following reason: There are four main findings. The first details the facts and deductions regarding the personality and mentality, physique and life of Marie Hanson, upon which personality that of Dr. McDonald impinged. From these facts and deductions comes the ultimate conclusion in
The twenty-sixth assignment complains of finding No. 2, and particularly of clauses designated hereunder as (4), (14), (16), (17), (18), (23), (24), (26), (27), (32), (35), (37), (38), (39), (40), (41), (42), (43), (44), and (45). Finding No. 2 deals essentially with the conduct of McDonald in relation to Marie Hanson, detailing with particularity much of the evidence often in the words of the evidence. Omitting the facts not in dispute which were previously set out, and contracted and summarized where possible, it is as follows: (1) That McDonald told Mr. Soule that he could see Miss Hanson was not mentally or physically normal, and that (2) he could help her mentally; (3) that from that time on he solicited Soule to employ him to treat decedent for mental ailments and (4) delusions; (5) that in June, 1913, Soule at McDonald’s request gave the latter the history of decedent up to that time, detailing matters set out in finding No. 1; (6) that Soule paid McDonald
Then follow findings regarding the manner in which Soule administered the estate of Marie and her father, detailing his disclosures of all the investments, his faithfulness, his and his wife’s kindness to Marie, that no accounting by Marie was ever demanded; that she was never dissatisfied with the manner in which the estate was handled until McDonald influenced her; that Marie and Mrs. Soule lived in the same houses for 48 years of their common lives and for 28 years Marie made her home with the Soule family.
The record shows evidence to support the deductions expressed by clauses (14), (16), (17), (19), (24),. (27), (82), (37), (39), (40), (41), and (45), which are a portion of those clauses in finding 2 to which assignments are particularly directed. In a case of this sort it is not usually possible to procure direct evidence of the statements and conduct which one accused of undue influence has used on the decedent. One of the two is dead; the other cannot be expected to give evidence against himself. The usual way is to give the surrounding circumstances from which deductions may be made. There was sufficient evidence in the record from which the court could readily deduce the findings found in the last above-named clauses. The appellant vigorously contends that there is no evidence to support clauses (18), (23), and (35). These and other clauses in the findings not expressly assigned as error deal with deductions as to what McDonald told Marie about the manner in which Soule was handling her estate. We think the deductions reflected by these clauses were under all the evidence permissible. True, there is no direct evidence that McDonald ever told Marie the things stated' in those clauses. Mrs. Robison and Mrs. Carey testified
Clauses (26) and (38) are not supported by any direct testimony, as well they could not be, for the reasons above stated, but when the court concluded that the whole matter of obtaining Marie’s fortune was designed by McDonald, as well it might conclude, it fitted in as an irresistible deduction that McDonald had, as part of the plan, influenced her not to obtain legal counsel and not to divulge to the Soule family his associations with her and that he had talked to her concerning Soule’s management of her estate. For her to have divulged that information would have “let the cat out of the bag.” The inference that he so prevailed upon her is a natural one from all the circumstances.
Clause (42), specifically assigned as error, is contrary to the evidence of the witness Gronemann and McDonald, and is not supported by any evidence, but in the light of all the other evidence so little weakens the final conclusions as to be negligible and nonprejudicial. Clause (44) is not literally but practically supported by the evidence. McDonald' testified that Marie kept the purported will in her possession for five days, and then turned it over to him, and he
We now come to the questions as to whether all of the evidence supports the allegation of (1) mental incapacity to make a will, and (2) undue influence. These findings in general form are contained in the third finding; the supporting evidence, as stated before, being practically abstracted in findings 1 and 2. Assignments 14 to 27, both inclusive, bring up these two general questions. We have stated that there was competent evidence to support most of the deductions contained in the first finding, and that those supported by incompetent evidence have the same ideas reflected in other clauses supported by evidence not objected to, or, if objected to, the overruling of the objection not assigned as error. The real question is: Do all the clauses in the finding supported by competent evidence justify a conclusion that Marie was incompetent to make a will? Certainly clauses (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (i), (j), (k), (1), (m), (o), (p), (q), (r), (t), (x), (aa), (bb),and (ccj of finding 1, taken separately or all together, do not reflect a lack of capacity to make a will considered in the light of her whole mentality. Because a person thinks others are plotting against her or because she broods or is pessimistic or imagines darkly or is suspicious and distrustful, abhors strangers, especially men, is afraid to go out at night in the dark, has a deformed back and is self-conscious of it and desires to' hide it, becomes irritated by others, is sensitive, dislikes to' talk to more than one at a time, and for long periods would not go down town, is untidy and disheveled during some period of her life, dislikes to see furniture changed about, and like oddities, each separately or all put together, may show some eccentricities, but not lack of testamentary capacity. “Eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, however gross, do not' constitute insanity.” In re Hanson’s Will, 50 Utah
Here it is necessary to diverge for a moment from our analysis. Because the finding (u) depends on the competency of certain evidence admitted over objection, which rulings were assigned as error, we shall at this juncture consider such assignments, returning later to a continued consideration of whether the clauses in finding 2 can be said in law to support the ultimate conclusion of testamentary incapacity. These assignments relate to the court permitting opinions to be given by lay witnesses over appellant’s objections on the ground that such opinions were not sufficiently fortified by underlying facts upon which an opinion could be based. These assignments' are 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. It was held by this court in Be Hanson’s Will, supra, that the opinion of lay witnesses as to mental condition cannot be given unless the one who offers the opinion has had a personal acquaintanceship with the person whose mentality is under inquiry and unless such lay witness details the underlying facts upon which his opinion is based, and then his observations must not be too remote from the time of the execution of the instrument. The matter of remoteness depends somewhat on what characteristics the giver of the opinion testifies to. Such as would be unlikely to change or which tended to show some inherent brain weakness or some psychological disturbance of a permanent nature may be given, although observed years before the making of the will. On the other hand, characteristics or observations which come from age or from some physical condition of a nature, removable or variant or temporary, must have been observed in fair proximity to the date of execution of the instrument.
In Schouler on Wills (2d Ed.) § 201, it is stated:
“On the other hand, the great preponderance of our American decisions favors admitting generally the testimony of persons, professional or unprofessional, as to matters of personal observation bearing upon the testator’s sanity, with out attempting to discriminate-*601 closely between facts and opinion. And in most states an unprofessional witness never was, or else is no longer, confined to a recital of facts from which the jury must draw unaided an inference of sanity or insanity, but may give his opinion touching the testator’s sanity as a result of his own observation and familiarity.” (Italics supplied.)
In the case of In re Hanson’s Will, supra, it is remarked by the court that in these cases, “great latitude is necessarily permitted in introducing evidence upon both the questions of mental capacity and undue influence.”
In view of these observations, were the lay witnesses who testified to the mental condition of the decedent (1) sufficiently qualified by observation and familiarity; (2) were their answers sufficiently based on underlying facts given in evidence? Assignment No. 3 claims the trial court erroneously permitted Mr. Rust to answer the following question: “From your acquaintance with her, from 1913, would you say until her death whether or not she was of sound or unsound mind?” He answered, “My own opinion is that she wasn’t normal. That was my opinion regarding her in Dec. 1922.” His acquaintance with Marie was from 1913 until her death, but his contacts with her were limited. He gives his reasons why he entertained the opinion he did as to her mental condition. The answer he gave that she was not normal does not necessarily imply that she was incompetent to make a will. It' is well borne out by all of the testimony that she was not normal. The answer was therefore commensurate with the observations, and cannot be prejudicial.
The same witness was asked, “Do you think, in December, 1922, that she was capable of transacting business dealings or engaging in business transactions?” Over objection, he answered, “Well, I never thought she was mentally developed when I saw or heard her speak.” This is in exactly the same category. It was of service in giving a general idea of the decedent’s mentality which, together with other evidence, might aid the court in arriving at her
The answer of George Guiver, who had seen the decedent off and on for a number of years from 1913 to her death in 1932, reads in part as follows. “I thought in my mind she wasn’t responsible. I didn’t think she was capable of taking care of herself without someone to watch over her, because she acted so funny and would laugh and didn’t appear to me to have a right mind.” The answer does no more than give the witness’s impression of the decedent’s mentality based on her conduct as he observed it. He did not attempt to say whether she had testamentary capacity. His answer, in view of all the other evidence the court had, would of necessity receive a measured interpretation, and was not prejudicial. No error was committed in' refusing to strike it. The same observations are applicable to the answer of Golden Guiver, who stated,
"She would start in to talk and tell me something, first thing she would stop, forget what she was saying and start and talk about how she was living or something and then she would say, oh I remember now. Her mind was almost running that way all the time. She would keep forgetting what she was talking about. Her appearance used to look kind of funny. She used to talk so much and run on kind of nonsense. I didn’t pay much attention to what she said. * * * I think she was kind of out of her mind.”
It is difficult to see how much more enlightening evidence as to the manner of the deceased could be elicited to show incoherence. The phrase, “I think she was kind of out of her mind,” must be interpreted as in the case of all such lay expressions in the light of its underlying supporting facts. There was no error in refusing to strike this answer.
The witness was then asked, “What would you say was her mental condition in 1922, in reference to her making a
“An unprofessional witness * * * may in many states be allowed to state whether the conduct of the testator was rational or irrational, but he ccmnot be asked directly whether the testator had testamentary capacity, as that is a question for the jury” (Italics supplied)—citing Wear v. Wear, 200 Ala. 345, 78 So. Ill; In re Sturtevant’s Estate, 92 Or. 269, 178 P. 192, 180 P. 595; Coleman v. Marshall, 263 Ill. 330, 104 N. E. 1042, 1045, all of which bear out the principle mentioned in the text.
In Page on Wills (Ed. 1901) § 392, it is stated,
“The form of the question which calls for an opinion as to the testator’s sanity from a witness competent to give an opinion and the nature of the opinion called for, are very important topics in the actual trial of a case. A form not infrequent is something like this: ‘In your judgment was testator competent to make a will?’ This form finds justification in the language used in many cases where the precise point has not been presented for consideration, but it is inherently vicious, as it presupposes that the witness knows the degree of capacity the law requires in order that the testator may make a valid will, and in addition to the opinion of the witness as to testator’s sanity, such a question calls for the opinion of the witness as to the law. Accordingly the courts which have considered this exact point have held such question improper. So the witness cannot be asked if the testator had ‘mental capacity to make a will’ or any similar form of question which assumes that the witness knows what the legal requirement of testamentary capacity is.” Citing Kempsey v. McGinniss, 21 Mich. 123; Brown v. Mitchell, 88 Tex. 350, 31 S. W. 621, 36 L. R. A. 64 (which contains a rather exhaustive review of a number of cases); Walker v. Walker’s Ex’r, 34 Ala. 469; Schneider*604 v. Manning, 121 Ill. 376, 12 N. E. 267; Buys v. Buys, 99 Mich. 354, 58 N. W. 331; Farrell's Adm’r v. Brennan’s Adm’x, 32 Mo. 328, 82 Am. Dec. 137; Clapp v. Fullerton, 34 N. Y. 190, 90 Am. Dec. 681; Hewlett v. Wood, 55 N. Y. 634; Runyan v. Price, 15 Ohio St. 1, 86 Am. Dec. 459; Gibson v. Gibson, 9 Yerg. (Tenn.) 329; In re Blood’s Will, 62 Vt. 359, 19 A. 770; all of which except Buys v. Buys support the text.
“What degree of mental capacity is necessary to enable a testator to malee a valid will, to what extent and with what degree of perfection he must understand the will and the persons and property affected by it, or to what extent his mind must be impaired to render him incapable, is a question of law exclusively for the Court, with which the witnesses have nothing to do. And it is a question of law of no little difficulty, which calls for the highest skill of competent jurists, and upon which the ablest courts are not entirely agreed.” Kempsey v. McGinniss, 21 Mich. 123, at page 141.
The rather detailed consideration of the evidence contained in this opinion in the instant case to determine whether the lower court was correct in finding lack of testamentary capacity, bears out the observation of the Kemp-sey Case. The court, therefore, erred in not sustaining the objection; but in view of our conclusions in relation to the matter of undue influence the ruling is not ground for reversal.
The question directed to Georgina Guiver did not invite an opinion as to testamentary capacity, but as to the testatrix’s “mental condition,” based on the witness’s observations as to appearance, conduct, and conversation of the testatrix. In New York and some other states, even an expert may only testify to the soundness or unsoundness of a testator’s mind (not to his testamentary capacity); the lay witness with knowledge of and familiarity with the testator being limited to state his impression as to whether the testator was rational or irrational judging from the acts and conversations to which the witness testifies in regard to the testator. Clapp v. Fullerton, 34 N. Y. 190, 90 Am. Dec. 681; Hewlett v. Wood, 55 N. Y. 634. In other states the rule is not so narrow. See Wear v. Wear, supra, and Coleman v. Marshall, supra.
In the case of In re Hanson’s Will, supra, the form which a summation question to the lay witness may take was not specifically before the court, although the court did say:
“All that can be said is that a witness should be permitted to state the facts fully, and if from, the detailed facts the jury may draw an inference that the subject of the inquiry was of misotmd mind, the witness may also be permitted to express his opinion respecting- the sanity.” (Italics supplied.)
The case of In re Swan’s Estate, supra, followed the general principle that laymen properly qualifying themselves may give testimony relating to the question of testamentary capacity, but did not hold that a layman could directly give his opinion as to the testamentary capacity of a testator. In the case of Brown v. Mitchell, 88 Tex. 350, at page 358, 31 S. W. 621, 625, 36 L. R. A. 64, it is stated:
“An opinion as to sanity or insanity does not express a legal conclusion, but is simply an opinion as to a mental condition, which is allowed in this class of cases by nearly all courts.”
Assignment No. 12 specifies error in permitting Dr. Curtis to answer a hypothetical question of great length purporting to take in the material facts in Marie’s life which would aid the doctor in arriving at an opinion. It is difficult to see how the inclusion in the hypothetical question of
One other assignment of error needs to be taken up before we return to a consideration of the question from which we were, because of a necessity to determine whether certain evidence was properly admitted, forced to divert our attention. Assignment No. 1 contends that the court was in error in sustaining an objection to the following question propounded to one of the subscribing witnesses to the purported will, Mrs. Gronemann, and running as follows:
“From what you observed there, Mrs. Gronemann [at the time and place the decedent signed the instrument], and the conversation and what Marie said, were you able to form an opinion as to whether she was sane and knew what she was doing?”
The rule is that a subscribing witness may testify as to the mental condition of the testator at the time of subscribing to the will without the necessity of laying a foundation for the conclusion. It is an exception to the rule that a lay witness cannot give a conclusion or opinion without reciting the underlying or “sense” facts on which such opinion is based. Gibson v. Gibson, 9 Yerg. (17 Tenn.) 329; Clapp v. Fullerton, 34 N. Y. 190; 90 Am. Dec. 681; Schouler on Wills (6th Ed.) § 232.
“It is settled by the almost unanimous weight of authority that the subscribing witnesses to a will may give their opinion as to the sanity or insanity of the testator without any reference to their means*608 of determining his mental capacity, or their ability to judge of his capacity with the means at their disposal.” Page on Wills (1901) § 388.
The court should have permitted the question to be answered. However, it appears that the witness Gronemann was fully permitted to give her opinion as to the mental condition of the decedent at the time the latter signed the instrument, in answer to other questions. The question here presented in respect to the court’s refusal to permit the above-quoted question is therefore moot.
Having now sufficiently considered the rulings of the court on admitting evidence which forms, in part at least, support for the finding designated (u) in finding No. 1 above set out, we may proceed with our consideration of the question whether there was any competent evidence on which to find that the decedent was mentally incompetent to make a will. Since the jury and no one else had the right to conclude as to whether she was incompetent to make a will, testimony that she was not so competent must be ignored. Such testimony as to her being of “unsound mind,” unable to “transact business,” or that she “could not reason,” must all be measured and limited in its content by the underlying facts given in support of such impressions and in the light of all the other testimony. They are elastic phrases which may mean much or little, depending on the sense in which they are used and the contents with which invested. A person may not be capable of conducting ordinary business because not trained in it or even if incapable mentally may in cases be capable of making a simple will. The true test is as to whether the testatrix had “sufficient mind and memory [at the time of making the will] to remember who were the natural objects of her bounty, recall to mind her property, and dispose of it understandingly according to some plan formed in her mind.” Coleman v. Marshall, supra.
The finding (v), that “her delusions persisted,” etc., again refers to delusions in a popular sense, and not in the
We have considered the evidence carefully to determine whether there is evidence from which the court could conclude that on December 14, 1922, the decedent did not have testamentary capacity. It is a case in which the transcript of testimony probably permits us to determine whether in law such conclusion could be arrived at equally as well as hearing the witnesses. It is not as if the decedent had been a witness in the lower court, in which case her actions could be observed. We have considered the testimony with some care in this opinion because we believe there is a tendency to consider those testators who cut off the natural objects of their bounty as incompetent to make a will because of a combination of circumstances, such as idosyncrasies and eccentricities, queerness, untidyness, obstinate opinions, or understandardized thinking. In this case we have considerable doubt whether Marie did not have sufficient mental capacity to make a will. In some ways she appears to be quite intelligent. Because of her physical deformity and lack of opportunity to live the life of a normal woman, she was shy, suspicious, sensitive, irritable, self-conscious, retiring, and disinterested in what people who lead a normal life generally are. Coupled with these characteristics was a weak body and impaired nervous system, resulting in emotional unstability and lack of control.
While there may be some doubt as to whether the decedent lacked testamentary capacity, there is no doubt but that it was a mind easily capable of being influenced. The evidence relating to Marie’s mentality and general nervous control is therefore material and of aid not only in determining testamentary capacity, but to determine what sort of a subject Dr. McDonald had to play upon. A strong mind is not easily influenced. Therefore, all the evidence of mentality and its strength or weakness is material on the issue of undue influence. The issue of undue influence involves two main lines of inquiry: (1) What type of person is it claimed was influenced? and (2) How or by what means was such person influenced?
By what has been brought out above, it amply appears that Marie’s mind, even though it may not have lacked testamentary capacity, was one easily susceptible of being played upon. In the light of Marie’s mental capacity and Dr. McDonald’s conduct, there is ample evidence to support the finding of undue influence. We need not discuss the evidence of the means used to influence it. It is sufficiently reflected in the 45 clauses and the additional matter contained in finding No. 2 set out herein. As stated before, these are supported by competent evidence. The influence exerted by Dr. McDonald was not only undue, but designed and perfidious. Nothing more need be said in this regard.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed, with costs to the respondent.
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