Bloor v. Platt

Citations

• 78 Ohio St. (N.S.) 46

Syllabus

<p>Any person interested, may contest will — Judgment creditor obtaining lien on property — Coming to defendant heir in absence of will — May contest validity of will under Section 5858, Revised Statutes — Probating substance of alleged lost will — Question of evidence — Nature of interrogatories — What court may charge jury — Law of wills.</p> <p>x. A judgment creditor of an heir, who has obtained a lien by levy on property, which in the absence of a will would be the property of the debtor heir by descent, is a person interested in a will or codicil, within the meaning of Section 5858, Revised Statutes, and therefore has legal capacity to prosecute an action to contest the validity of an alleged will disposing of such property to a person other than such heir.</p> <p>2. Where, upon application to the probate court, it was alleged that a will was in existence after the death of the testatrix and was lost, and a paper alleged to contain the substance of the lost will was admitted to probate, and in proceedings to set aside such probate the jury returned a verdict that the paper was not the last will and testament of the testatrix, and, at the same time, returned answers to special interrogatories as follows: “Was the paper writing claimed by defendant to be the last will and testament of C. signed by her? Answer: . Don’t know. Was it signed in her presence by two subscribing witnesses? Answer: Don’t know”; such answers are not inconsistent with the general verdict.</p> <p>3. In such case it was not error to charge the jury that, “If no other or further proof were given in respect to the will or its contents, it being shown that the original will was lost after the death of the testatrix without fault of the defendants as beneficiaries, and at the time of the death of the testatrix it had not been revoked, the defendants would be entitled to your verdict,” especially when such instruction is considered with the context.</p>