Palmer's Estate

Citations

• 219 Pa. 303
• 68 A. 710
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 564

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Testamentary capacity — Probate—Evidence.</p> <p>Testamentary capacity is the normal condition of one of full age, and the affirmative is with him who undertakes to call it in question, and this affirmative he must establish, not in a doubtful, but in a positive manner.</p> <p>On an application to admit a will to probate, the case turned upon the evidence of the two subscribing witnesses and the attending physician. One of the subscribing witnesses, a justice of the peace, was the scrivener of the will. He testified that the testator dictated it and that he wrote it just as dictated; that in the writing ho made a mistake which the testator corrected; that after it was all written he read it over to the testator who said it was correct. Ho also testified that the testator was rational, and that when he placed the will in his pocket the testator said it was all right. The other subscribing witness testified that the testator signed his name without any assistance, that he seemed to be in a stupid condition, but that she could not tell whether he knew what he was doing. The attending physician testified that the testator was not in fit condition to make a will on the day the paper was executed; but he testified that two days before he himself had filled up two judgment notes for the decedent, and witnessed his execution of them, and at this time the testator was conscious of what he was doing in business matters. The witness also testified that he told the scrivener on the day of the execution of the will that testator’s mind was clear at times when he was aroused, but that his mind was torpid when he was left alone; that “occasionally he would be clear; he seemed to be clear while you were speaking. . . . When you would speak to him he would speak up rational.” Held, that the evidence was not sufficient to justify the refusal to admit will to probate.</p>