Thomas v. Carter

Citations

• 170 Pa. 272
• 33 A. 81
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1397

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Testamentary capacity — Issue devisavit vel non — Partial insanity — Delusions.</p> <p>Partial insanity is a derangement of one or more of the faculties of the mind which prevents freedom of action. The question in any given case is whether the act under investigation was done upon consideration of existing facts, or under the influence of a delusion that controlled the will of the testator and destroyed his freedom of action.</p> <p>If a monomaniacal delusion is unalterably entertained against a child, who otherwise would have been testator’s legatee or devisee, and such delusion is shown to have been the operating motive which excluded the child, and if the supposed act or misconduct on the part of the child had no existence in fact, but was a creature of the diseased imagination of the testator, and the will was engendered by this delusion, and was its offspring, and was made under its influence, operating at the time in the testamentary act, the will cannot be sustained as a last will and testament.</p> <p>The wife and children of a man are the natural objects of his affection, and where they are disinherited by a husband and father when he comes-to dispose of his estate, the reasons for his doing so are a proper subject to enter into the consideration of a jury in the trial of an issue devisavit vel non.</p> <p>A will disinheriting a daughter will be set aside where it appears that the will was made by the father under the influence of a specific delusion, based upon no facts whatever.</p>