Orchardson v. Cofield

• Decision Date: 22 December 1897
• Citation: 49 N.E. 197,171 Ill. 14
• Parties: ORCHARDSON v. COFIELD et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

171 Ill. 14

49 N.E. 197

ORCHARDSON

v.COFIELD et al.¹

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 22, 1897.

Appeal from circuit court, Adams county; Oscar F. Bonney, Judge.

Bill by Amelia Cofield and Eliza Solomon against Charles Orchardson and others. From decrees for plaintiffs, defendant Orchaedson appeals. Affirmed.

John H. Williams and Jesse B. Barton, for appellant.

James N. Sprigg, Govert & Pape, and W. L. Vandeventer, for appellees.

WILKIN, J.

To the October term, 1894, of the circuit court of Adams county, appellees, two of the heirs of Minerva Orchardson (or, as appellees insist, Minerva Merrick), deceased, filed their bill in chancery against appellant and others to contest the validity of the last will and testament of said Minerva upon the ground of mental incapacity, and that its execution was procured by the said Charles Orchardson through fraud and undue influence, and also to set aside and have declared null and void a marriage claimed by appellant, Orchardson, to exist between himself and the said Minerva at the date of her death, on the ground of her mental incapacity to enter into a marriage contract at the time of the alleged marriage, and the fraud of said Orchardson. The defendants, except Orchardson and one William H. Boyer, were also heirs of the testatrix. Orchardson alone answered the bill, and he denied each of its material allegations. Replication being duly filed, the trial and hearing below were upon the issue thus formed. On that branch of the case involving the validity of the will an issue at law was made up whether the writing produced was the will of the testatrix or not, and tried by a jury, resulting in a verdict that it was not. The court also submitted to the jury certain interrogatories for special findings, which it returned with a general verdict, as follows: ‘First. Did Minerva Merrick Orchardson, at the time said will purports to have been signed, possess sufficient mental capacity to transact ordinary business? Answer. Yes. Second. Did said Minerva Merrick Orchardson, at the time said will was signed by her (if it was so signed), have sufficient mental capacity to know and understand the business in which she was then engaged? Answer. Yes. Third. Was there any undue influence exercised over Minerva Merrick Orchardson, connected with or operating upon her at the time she executed the will in question (if she did execute it)? Answer. Yes.’ A motion for new trial was overruled, and a decree entered upon the general verdict, setting aside the will and probate thereof. By agreement of the parties the issue as to the validity of the marriage was submitted to the chancellor on the same evidence produced before the jury, with such additional testimony as either party saw fit to introduce, and that issue was also found for the complainant, and a decree entered that the ‘alleged marriage of Minerva Merrick to the said Charles Orchardson, of date April 9, 1893, was and remained, at and from the time thereof, and is, null and void.’ From both these decrees Orchardson has prosecuted this appeal. Several errors are assigned upon the record, but the only grounds of reversal insisted upon are that the evidence is insufficient to authorize either decree, and that on the issue as to the will the special findings of the jury are conclusive.

The facts found by the chancellor, material to a consideration of the first position, are as follows:

‘That Minerva Merrick, at the time of her alleged marriage with Charles Orchardson, of date April 12, 1893, was of age about 83 years; that she had been for several years afflicted with cancer, and her physical health had become poor; that her mind and memory had become greatly weakened and impaired; that she had been a widow since the year 1876, and lived in her own home, with her servants, in Quincy, Ill. That she was possessed of a considerable fortune. That from a time shortly after her husband's death, in 1876, she had believed in what was commonly known as spiritualism, and her views concerning spiritualism had grown upon her of later years, and she had been for some time last preceding her alleged marriage to Charles Orchardson, and was at the time of such alleged marriage, and remained continuously thereafter until her death, on June 11, 1894, a monomaniac on the subject of spiritualism, and insane upon all matters into which the subject of spiritualism entered, or which were connected therewith, and was and remained during all that time wholly dominated and controlled by insane delusions; among other things believing she could receive and did receive, through the intervention of other persons as mediums,-not claiming to be in any sense a medium herself,-communications, advice, and directions concerning the conduct of her affairs and business from disembodied spirits generally, and particularly from the spirit of her deceased husband, Dr. Marcus Merrick; and was and remained so controlled thereby, and by such communications, advice, and directions, and insanely believed it to be her religious and conscientious duty to obey such directions, without heeding the advice of her formerly trusted friends or her counsel, and without consulting or relying upon her own mind and will she followed, obeyed, and acted upon such supposed spirit communications, advice, and directions concerning any matter or matters, and in all matters requiring her attention and action during that time she first submitted, and considered it her duty to submit, to the same, through medium or mediums, for advice and direction of such supposed spirits, as to what her actions should be, as to which such supposed advice had been received by her. And the court further finds from the evidence that preceding said alleged marriage, and during the month of October 1892, the said Charles Orchardson, then about the age of 57 years, a person substantially without means or property, and a stranger to Mrs. Merrick and to the community in which she lived in Quincy, appeared in said Quincy, and within a few days of his arrival inquired for Mrs. Merrick's place of residence, and evinced a knowledge that she was a spiritualist, and the wealthy widow of Dr. Marcus Merrick, deceased. That the said Orchardson was then a married man, having a wife living in the state of Michigan, and who, some two months thereafter, procured a divorce from the said Charles Orchardson on account of cruelty. That the said Minerva Merrick was informed of these facts concerning said Charles Orchardson, and also informed that such application had been made also upon the charge that said Orchardson had consorted with a woman notoriously lewd, which woman came with said Orchardson to Quincy, Illinois, and that said information came to said Minerva Merrick some time preceding her alleged marriage to him; and at said time she was also informed that he had consorted in a lewd manner with women after coming to Quincy, and during the time as hereafter mentioned, in which he was engaged in writing a book at said Mrs. Merrick's house; and said Minerva Merrick admitted and believed said information to be true. That, beginning within a few days after he, said Orchardson, so first came to Quincy, he made the acquaintance of said Minerva Merrick, and from that time until the alleged marriage spent much of his time at her house. That he had with him, and said Minerva Merrick read, a number of what he falsely and fraudulently alleged to be the writings from the spirits or persons distinguished in history, and long since dead, which writings he falsely and fraudulently professed to have seen written in a miraculous manner without human hands. That in these supposed communications the said Orchardson professed to be directly addressed by the spirits as ‘The Son of Wisdom,’ and by other laudatory titles. That they purported to speak at considerable length in exalted terms of the powers of the person addressed, defining them as like unto those of Jesus Christ; referring to said Orchardson as destined to be the savior of the human race, and as commissioned by the spirits to reform and regenerate mankind. That they also indicated that these communications and other phenomena, supposed to be in the possession of said Orchardson, of like character, should be prepared and published as a book, the sales of which should net a very large sum of money. That some of them referred to the want of means on the part of said Orchardson to carry out the supposed commission, and intimated that this want should be supplied, and that he should persevere. That said Orchardson also referred in credulous terms to his confidence in the statement that he had been on the planet some centuries prior to his present nativity, to the fact that many most important communications from the spirit world had come to him directly without the intervention of any other medium, and under conditions which he stated as, from his personal knowledge, they could not possibly be untrue or unreal. That within a few days after the said Orchardson commenced to visit at said Mrs. Merrick's house, he commenced to write said book, wrote the same at her house, spending most of his time there, and finished the book, and had it printed and issued from the bindery, at Mrs. Merrick's expense, a few days before the alleged marriage, the book being entitled ‘The Light of the Ages and Deathblow to Poverty.’ That it was by dedication addressed to Mrs. Merrick, contained numerous flattering references to her, represented that his opinion and hers on the subject treated were in accord, also represented that Mrs. Merrick had become the financial support of the book and of Orchardson in carrying out the commission referred to in the spirit writing. That a considerable part of the book was occupied with a reproduction of the said supposed spirit communications, and a recital of extravagant spirit phenomena, supposed to have come within said Orchardson's personal observations and...