Meyer v. Jacobs

Citations

• 123 F. 900
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4955

Syllabus

<p>1. Gifts—Validity—Mental Incapacity.</p> <p>Neither age nor physical weakness and debility nor disease of the body will affect the capacity of a person to make a valid testamentary conveyance, if sufficient intelligence remains, so that such person understands the nature and effect of the conveyance.</p> <p>2. Sam b—Undue Influence.</p> <p>Undue influence exerted upon a person who executes a testamentary conveyance such as will justify a court in setting it aside, must he such as to destroy the free agency of the party signing the instrument, and must exist and he exerted to such an extent as amounts to constraint which substitutes the will of another for that of the grantor.</p> <p>8. Same—Sufficiency of Proof.</p> <p>The fact that a daughter possessed great influence over her mother, gained by kindness and affection, and the power, to some extent, at least, to control her actions, which power she had on some occasions exercised; that she and her husband were in constant attendance upon her mother during the latter’s last illness, when she made a testamentary disposition of her property which was wholly in favor of such daughter, to the exclusion of another daughter, is not sufficient to raise a presumption of undue influence, such as will justify a court in setting aside the conveyances made, where it appears that the mother was at the time in full possession of her mental faculties.</p> <p>¶ 2. Revocation of gifts causa mortis, see note to Castle v. Persons, 54 C. C. A. 143.</p>