Douglass's Estate

Citations

• 162 Pa. 567
• 29 A. 715
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 1021

Syllabus

<p>Will — Issue devisavit vel non — Undue influence — Confidential relation— Evidence — Burden of proof.</p> <p>Where a will is drawn in favor of one occupying a confidential relation who either writes it, or procures it to be written, or whose advice is sought and taken, the burden rests on such beneficiary to disprove undue influence. This is not the ease however where there is no evidence that the beneficiary solicited the benefit, or wrote the will, or procured it to be written, or that his advice was sought or taken.</p> <p>Testatrix, the owner of several farms and other property, made her superintendent the executor of her will, and devised to him one of her most valuable farms. The evidence did not show that the relation between them was any more confidential than that of employer and employee usually and necessarily is. It did not appear that the executor was in any way connected with the making of the will either by agency, procurement, suggestion, persuasion, solicitation, presence at or knowledge of its execution. Held, that the burden was not shifted to the proponent to show that the will was not executed under undue influence.</p> <p>Will— Testamentary capacity — Evidence.</p> <p>An issue devisavit vel non, to determine testamentary capacity of testatrix, will not be granted where the evidence is in effect that testatrix during the last years of her life was in bad health, suffering from dyspepsia, catarrh, headache, slight insomnia and occasional lapses of memory and absent-mindedness, but that she did not suffer from imbecility or delusion, and that she was entirely competent to transact business at the time she made her will, and that she continued to attend to business, make contracts, draw checks, etc., up to near the time of her death.</p> <p>Issue devisavit vel non — Evidence of forgery.</p> <p>An issue devisavit vel non will not be awarded, to determine validity of signature of testatrix, where the evidence for contestants is that of three witne