Ormsby v. Webb

Citations

• 134 U.S. 47
• 10 S. Ct. 478
• 33 L. Ed. 805
• 1890 U.S. LEXIS 1948

Syllabus

<p>An order in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, at special term, admitting a writing to probate and record as the will of a deceased person, in conformity with the findings of the jury empanelled, in' the same court, to try the issue of will or no will, is one involving the merits of the proceeding, and may be reviewed by the - same court in general term, and such review will bring before the general term. all th'e questions arising upon bills of exceptions taken at the trial before the jury: and if the-value of the matter‘in dispute be sufficient, this court has jurisdiction to reexamine a final order of the Supreme íiourt of the District of Columbia affirming the order of the Probate Court, and to pass upon the questions of law raised by such bills of exceptions.</p> <p>Van Ness v. Van Ness, 6 How. 62; and Broivn v. Wiley, 4 Wall. 165, dis-' tinguished.</p> <p>In the trial before a jury of an issue made up in a Probate Court as to the incompetency of a deceased person, from unsoundness .of mind or undue influence, to make a will, declarations made by the deceased to a witness that he received the bulk of his estate by breaking the will of his grandfather, who was also the ancestor of the caveators, and that his estate</p> <p>■ consisted in a great degree -of that property and its accumulations; and also declarations of one of the legatees, made a,bout, or after- the date of the execution of the alleged will, that she had knowledge at that -time of the execution of the will and of its provisions, should be excluded from the jury.</p> <p>On the trial of that issue it was proper for the jury to consider whether the undue influence alleged to have been exercised by a particular legatee in respect to other matters extended to or controlled the execution of the will, and give it such weight as they might deem proper.</p> <p>An instruction to the jury, at such trial, that if they should believe the evidence of a witness named, they must find for the will, w