McNitt v. Gilliland

Citations

• 246 Pa. 378
• 92 A. 508
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 523

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Undue influence — Testamentary capacity — Feigned issue — Valid will.</p> <p>1. In the trial of an issue involving the validity of a will assailed on the ground of undue influence, the trial judge sits as a chancellor, and the evidence is addressed to him quite as much as to the jury. It must, as a whole, be judged by him independently of the jury, must satisfy his legal conscience as well as the jury, and can not be rightfully submitted to the jury as the basis of any finding which he could not approve. The trial judge can not permit the jury to do what he, after weighing the testimony in the light of the established law upon the subject, as a chancellor, would not do.</p> <p>2. Where, upon a review of all the proofs, a verdict against the will could be properly sustained by a trial judge, the controversy should be submitted to the jury even though the judge should feel that were he sitting as a juror, he would not draw the inferences or reach the conclusions contended for by the contestants.</p> <p>3. In so far as the testimony of a proponent of a will is not inherently unreasonable or improbable, the judge may consider it in measuring the preponderance of evidence.</p> <p>4. In the trial of an issue devisavit vel non, the passing upon the relevancy of the evidence, the order of its admission, the mode of examining witnesses, etc., must be left very much to the sound discretion of the trial judge, and it is incumbent on the party complaining of the judgment entered not only to point out technical errors, but also to satisfy the appellate court that he or she was prejudiced thereby.</p> <p>5. On the trial of an issue devisavit vel non it appeared that the testator in January, 1910, when the will was executed, was suffering from a disease which weakened him in body and mind. Two months prior thereto, testator’s wife and sister had died, bequeathing him all their property. On January 14, .1910, testator told a servant that he wished to make a will and dire