Caldwell v. Danforth

• Decision Date: 30 June 1938
• Citation: 200 A. 577,124 Conn. 468
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: CALDWELL v. DANFORTH et al.

200 A. 577

124 Conn. 468

CALDWELL v. DANFORTH et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

June 30, 1938

Appeal from Superior Court, New London County; Carl Foster, Judge.

In the matter of the estate of Mary Elizabeth Hyde, deceased. From a judgment on a verdict for Wesley Caldwell on his appeal from a probate court decree approving decedent's will, J Romeyn Danforth and another, executors, appeal.

No error.

Henry L. McGuire, of New London, for appellants.

George C. Morgan and Griswold Morgan, both of New London, for appellee.

Argued before MALTABIE, C.J., and HINMAN, AVERY, BROWN, and JENNINGS, JJ.

JENNINGS, Judge.

The only assignment of error is predicated on the denial of the motion to set aside the verdict which found that the instrument in question was not the will of Mrs. Hyde. The plaintiff claimed that Mrs. Hyde lacked testamentary capacity and that she was unduly influenced. The verdict being general, it should stand if it can be supported on either ground. Ziman v. Whitley, 110 Conn. 108, 147 A. 370.

The jury could reasonably have found the following facts: Mrs Hyde came to this country from Canada when she was eighteen years old, was twice married and childless. She survived the death of her second husband sixteen years. During this last period she lived quietly at her home in New London, usually renting rooms. She had numerous relatives of the half and whole blood. Up to the last few years of her life her relations with them had been friendly and intimate. Her feeling toward them then changed to suspicion and dislike.

Until 1932 she seems to have enjoyed fair health. In that year she was taken to the hospital suffering from a complication of diseases, the most serious being anaemia and a tumor. She never entirely recovered her health and was hospitalized three times thereafter. She was taken to the hospital for the last time on the morning of January 12th 1937, in very bad physical and mental condition, executed the instrument in question about three the same afternoon and died during an operation the next morning. This instrument differed from one executed in 1935 in important particulars. A bequest to a relative who had cared for her in a serious illness was reduced from five thousand dollars to one dollar a new legatee, the person charged with having exercised undue influence, received a very substantial devise, and an institution was substituted for certain relatives as residuary legatee.

During her last years, her physical condition reacted on her mentality and she became increasingly suspicious, forgetful, disorientated, falied to understand the business on which she was engaged and lacked testamentary capacity. As is customary in such cases, the record covers a wide field of time and circumstance. The testimony of relatives and roomers to this general effect was corroborated by that of experts.

No complaint is made of the selection or conduct of the jury, of the charge or arguments of counsel. As far as appears from the record, the tribunal selected for the determination of the fact saw the witnesses, heard the mass of...