Roberts v. Clemens

Citations

• 202 Pa. 198
• 51 A. 758
• 1902 Pa. LEXIS 494

Syllabus

<p>Will — Issue devisavit vel non — Duty of trial judge.</p> <p>In an issue devisavit vel non, the trial judge sits as a chancellor, if in his opinion there is no evidence, or not sufficient evidence to set aside the instrument, it is his duty to give peremptory instructions to that effect to the jury.</p> <p>Will — Issue devisavit vel non — Testamentary capacity — Undue influence.</p> <p>On the trial of an issue devisavit vel non where the will was written by the wife of the principal beneficiary and is contested on the ground of lack of testamentary capacity and undue influence, it is the duty of the trial judge to give binding instructions for proponent, where it appears that the contestants were a brother and two nieces, children of a deceased brother, and that the principal beneficiary was a physician whose wife was a first cousin of the testatrix; that testatrix had lived in her cousin’s family for some two or three weeks before her death, the husband ministering to her, as a physician, and the wife as a nurse; that eight days before her death, while ill- in bed, testatrix requested her cousin to draw her will, which the latter proceeded to do; that the will then drawn was afterwards formally witnessed, and disposed of all of her property; that the will itself showed testatrix possessed a full and detailed knowledge of all of her possessions; and that besides the principal beneficiary she named as legatees of specific articles no less than eight relatives.</p>