Adams' Estate, In re
| Decision Date | 30 September 1952 |
| Docket Number | Gen. No. 10621 |
| Citation | 348 Ill.App. 115,108 N.E.2d 32 |
| Parties | In re ADAMS' ESTATE. PFLUM et al. v. JANES et al. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Wilson, Wilson & Rainey, Princeton, for appellants.
L. D. Spaulding, Jr., Princeton, for appellees.
Elmer E. Adams and Etta S. Adams, husband and wife, died intestate on March 4, 1951. On this date they resided in a two-story frame house in the Village of Wyanet, Bureau County, Illinois. They owned this real estate as joint tenants and both died as a result of a fire which partially consumed their home on the above date. They had no children or descendants of children as a result of their marriage but had other heirs at law. Proceedings were instituted in the County Court of Bureau County to determine their respective heirs at law. To decide this question it was necessary there, as here, to determine whether Elmer E. Adams or Etta S. Adams died first or whether they died simultaneously. The Illinois Revised Statute 1951, chap. 3, par. 192.1, provides 'where the title to property or the devolution thereof depends upon priority of death and there is no sufficient evidence that the persons have died otherwise than simultaneously, the property of each person shall be disposed of as if he had survived, except as provided otherwise in this Article.' The County Court found that there was not sufficient evidence that Elmer E. Adams and Etta S. Adams died otherwise than simultaneously. The two proceedings, consolidated by agreement of counsel, were appealed to the Circuit Court and after a trial de novo the Circuit Court affirmed the orders of the County Court. By stipulation of counsel the two causes are consolidated here. Appellants, the heirs at law of Elmer E. Adams, deceased, have appealed.
Appellants contend that Etta S. Adams died prior to Elmer E. Adams and not simultaneously and that the order of the Circuit Court finding that there was not sufficient evidence to show that they died otherwise than simultaneously is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.
The undisputed evidence disclosed by the abstract of the record shows that the house where the fire occurred was heated by an oil burning, hot-air furnace situated in the basement. The fire apparently started in the basement and came up the basement stairway as indicated by some charred wood in the basement, on the stairway, and near the top of the stairway. It is also undisputed that Elmer E. Adams at the time of his death was 79 years old and walked with a cane; that he did the housework, the cooking, performed the outside chores, and cared for his bedridden wife; that he was not suffering from any physical or mental disabilities. It is also undisputed that Etta S. Adams was 85 years old; that she had been bedridden as a result of a hip fracture that had occurred the preceding December; that a fairly good union of the fracture had been obtained and she could move herself about the bed and pull herself up into a semi-sitting position but could not stand or walk; that she had no other mental or physical disability. There is no evidence to indicate when Etta S. Adams was last seen alive prior to the fire. About 12:15 P.M. on the day of the fire Elmer Adams was seen feeding his chickens in the backyard of his home. About 1:00 P.M. on the same day the fire department was called, a neighbor having observed an unusual quantity of smoke coming from the Adams' house. Within a half hour the fire department arrived. The body of Mrs. Adams was removed from off her bed through a bedroom window. The bedroom was filled with smoke. The body was immediately examined by Dr. Elmer Schnicke, a witness, who testified on behalf of appellants that when he examined Mrs. Adams she was dead; that no oxygen equipment was used to attempt to revive her but it was applied to Mr. Adams without avail. Dr. Schnicke further testified that when Mr. Adams was brought up from the basement he was laid on the front lawn; that he found no pulse or heart murmur; that from his examination of the two people he could not ascertain the time of their deaths but that they were both dead at the time he examined them.
Several witnesses testified that sometime between fifteen and thirty minutes after Mrs. Adams was found, Elmer Adams was found in the basement in the southeast corner of a laundry room adjoining the furnace room. There is an outside entrance on the north wall of this laundry room and the doorway to the furnace room was located on the west wall of the laundry room. Adams was on his knees with his head on or near a narrow concrete ledge located approximately ten inches from the floor.
Henry Hamrick testified that between twenty and thirty minutes elapsed from the time that Mrs. Adams was taken out of the bedroom window until two other men brought out the body of Elmer Adams from the basement; that as they carried him they noticed that he had some color in his face; that his body was rather limp and that Hamrick then formed an opinion that he was alive. On cross-examination Hamrick testified that he saw no movement of Adams' body as he was being carried out and he would not positively swear whether he was alive or dead at that time.
Lewis Vaughn testified that he was the first person to reach Elmer Adams; that there was some color in his face; that he heard a noise from Mr. Adams' mouth as he was being carried out; that he formed the opinion...
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