Burley v. McGough

Citations

• 115 Ill. 11
• 3 N.E. 738

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence as to mental capacity—opinions of experts—of their weight, as against evidence of a different character. A person aged about seventy-three years, made his will on the 7th of March, 1883, and died on the 12th of the same month. On a contest of -the will, a physician testified that he saw the testator on the 3d, 6th and 9th days of March, 1883, and stated that the testator was physically very weak, and did not think he was able to walk; that he was the same as a man in a dying condition, and that he did not think any man in his condition was capable of transacting ordinary business. On the other hand, it was shown that on the 3d of March the testator walked three blocks to a barber shop, and got shaved, and that up to two days before his death he arose from his bed every morning to admit a neighbor, and kept up the fire, and walked around the room, and went into the kitchen, and was capable of attending to his business affairs, and dictated his will without any breaks in his directions or conversations. Other physicians were called as experts, and gave their opinions that he was not capable of making a will, based on the statements of the first named physician: Held, that such mere opinions of witnesses as experts, founded on such a basis, were entitled to but little weight as against proof of facts showing mental capacity.</p> <p>2. The testimony of witnesses, neighbors of a testator, consisting of facts and circumstances, and a detail of what he actually did and said, showing his mental competency, with their opinions based upon such facts, is proper, and entitled to much greater weight than the opinions of witnesses not based on facts and actual observation, on the question of his capacity to make a will.</p>