Gfeller v. Lappe

Citations

• 208 Pa. 48
• 57 A. 59
• 1904 Pa. LEXIS 697

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Lost will — Probate—Issue devisavit velnon.</p> <p>On the trial of an issue lo determine whether a decedent died leaving a will, it appeared that he executed the will eleven months before his death, containing a provision for the proponent, his step-daughter, similar to those made for his own children. The will was not found after decedent’s death. The proponent offered testimony tending to show the continued care of the decedent for the proponent from her childhood; the promise made her mother on her deathbed that he would provide for her in his will; his repeated declarations, extending over a period of many years, when other wills were in existence, and continued almost up to the day of his death, that he had provided for her; that three months before his death he took the will from the safe deposit box where he had placed it the day it was executed, and from that time kept it about his person until he was unable to leave his house; that when confined to his bed he kept it under his pillow until a few days before he died, when it was placed in a bureau drawer in his room; that he frequently expressed his anxiety for its safety, and his fear that it would be destroyed; and in addition to this the admissions of those interested in the destruction of the will that they had destroyed it. Held, (1) that the evidence was sufficient to rebut the presumption of revocation and also the testimony of a witness that the decedent told him that he had destroyed the will and showed fragments of it; and (2) that a verdict and judgment for the proponent should be sustained.</p>