In re the Estate of Gorkow

Citations

• 20 Wash. 563
• 56 P. 385
• 1899 Wash. LEXIS 203

Syllabus

<p>EVIDENCE - NON-EXPERTS - WILLS - TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY - ALLOWANCE OE EXPENSES—RIGHTS OE ILLEGITIMATE CHILD. PROVISION FOR CHILD-IDENTITY OF LEGATEE-CONTEST OF WILL-</p> <p>The admission in evidence of the testimony of a non-expert witness as to his opinion of the mental capacity of a testator, after stating the facts and circumstances upon which his opinion is based, and requiring the extent and nature of his knowledge of the testator to be probed on cross-examination, is not error, as the extent of such knowledge affects the witness’s credibility and not his competency.</p> <p>A lack of testamentary capacity is not shown by testimony establishing that the testator was a physical wreck and totally devoid of moral nature and natural affection, where it appears that testator in his life time possessed great capacity as a money maker, and at the time of his death knew fully what property he had and what disposition he wished to make of it.</p> <p>Under Bal. Code, § 4601 (1 Hill’s Code, § 1465), providing that a deceased parent should be deemed to have died intestate as to any child not named or provided for in the will, a will providing for an illegitimate child, who had been recognized as a son, by other than his real name, satisfies the statute, when there was no other child, and it is evident that such son was in the mind of the testator.</p> <p>In an action by a child to set aside a will, where there is probable cause for contesting its validity, it is not error for the court, upon confirming the will, to make an order allowing expenses and attorney’s fees to the contestant.</p> <p>Where an illegitimate child has been recognized by his father in writing, he becomes as much the heir of his father, under Bal. Code, § 4624, as a legitimate child, although his parents may never have intermarried, and, if the father die, leaving no widow, such child is as much entitled as one horn in wedlock to the possession of the homestead and to an allowance for support pending