Wood v. Salter

Citations

• 118 La. 695
• 43 So. 281
• 1907 La. LEXIS 789

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Testamentary Capacity — Evidence.</p> <p>Where a will is attacked on the ground that the testator was of unsound mind when he made it, the question which arises is whether the brain or other physical organ, whatever it may be, which is the medium through which the action of the mind is manifested, is so diseased or impaired as to make it an untrustworthy vehicle for the conveyance of the true wish or will of the testator, unbiased by any delusion which may be the result of such disease. The law fixes the time for the application of this test at the moment when the will is made, and expressly recognizes the capacity of persons, subject at times even to complete dementia, to. make a will in lucid intervals. When the will is established to have been made by the testator himself, unaided by others, and when, its . provisions and expressions are sage and judicious, containing nothing “sounding to folly,” these facts establish a presumption, even in the case of persons habitually insane, that it was made during the existence of a lucid interval, and impose upon those who attack the will the burden of proving insanity at the moment when it was made.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 49, Wills, §§ 06-68, 103-109.]</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>