Crockett v. Davis

Citations

• 81 Md. 134
• 31 A. 710
• 1895 Md. LEXIS 44

Syllabus

<p>Wills— Testamentary Capacity — Evidence of Medical Men — Reasons for Opinions — Undue Influence — Sufficiency of Evidence.</p> <p>An attending physician is competent to testify as to the mental capacity of a testator, without first stating the facts and circumstances upon which his opinion is based.</p> <p>The opinion of a medical expert on that subject is not only some evi dence, but is generally very important .evidence to go to the jury, particularly if he was well acquainted with the testator and attended him professionally.</p> <p>But if a medical expert gives the reasons upon which his opinion is founded, and they are such as men of ordinary knowledge can weigh, and are, in the judgment of the Court, clear absurdities from which no rational inference can be deduced, then his opinion that the testator did not have mental capacity is not legally sufficient evidence to prove the same.</p> <p>When the question was as to testamentary capacity vel non, a physician who was the son-in-law of the testatrix, and who had attended her professionally for a number of years, including the time when the will was made, testified that in his opinion-she was not then of sound and disposing mind, capable of executing a valid deed or contract; that a caveat to her late husband’s will, filed shortly before she executed her own, had greatly excited her; that she was in bad health, forgetful, self-contradictory and could easily be persuaded to do absurd things; that she suffered from chronic gastritis, which had weakened her mind, and that he could not remember all she said which produced that impression on him. Other witnesses testified that the testatrix was melancholy, weak, nervous and excitable. Held, that the reasons given by the physician for his opinion were not so inconclusive as to justify the Court in withdrawing the question of testamentary capacity from the consideration of the jury. ■</p> <p>If the facts proved are such that a rational mind might in reason and fairne