Christy v. Buttman

• Decision Date: 19 September 1922
• Docket Number: No. 34259.,34259.
• Citation: 189 N.W. 671,194 Iowa 262
• Parties: CHRISTY ET AL. v. BUTTMAN ET AL.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

194 Iowa 262

189 N.W. 671

CHRISTY ET AL.

v.BUTTMAN ET AL.

No. 34259.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 19, 1922.

Appeal from District Court, Mills County; G. W. Cullison, Judge.

This action is a will contest, tried to a jury. The instrument offered for probate was signed by Retta C. Angell and properly witnessed. The will was offered for probate by Maria Christy and Catherine Hurlbutt, proponents, two of the legatees named in the will. C. B. Christy, husband of Maria Christy, was by the will nominated as executor. The contestants are Margaret Buttman, Donald Cunningham, Michael Cunningham, Ethel Hume, and Marshall Cunningham, nephews and nieces of testatrix. Proponents are sisters of testatrix. The sole issue submitted to the jury was a question of undue influence, and the verdict returned consisting of answers to two following interrogatories:

“Interrogatory 1. Was the execution of the will in question obtained from Retta C. Angell by the undue influence of C. B. Christy? A. Yes.

Interrogatory 2. Was the will in question executed by Retta C. Angell of her own free will, and her property disposed of thereby as she desired? A. No.”

Motion by proponents, appellants, to set aside the verdict and for a new trial, was overruled, and judgment entered on the verdict in favor of contestants. Proponents appeal. Reversed and remanded.D. E. Whitfield, of Malvern, and W. S. Lewis, of Glenwood, for appellants.

Genung & Genung, of Glenwood, and Cook, Cook & Cook, of Malvern, for appellees.

ARTHUR, J.

It is the claim of contestants, appellees here, that C. B. Christy, who had the will in question written, and who had possession of the same immediately after the death of Mrs. Angell, was at the time, and long prior thereto, the banker, brother-in-law, and confidential adviser of testatrix, and that he, by undue influence, induced her to execute said will, making his wife, Mrs. C. B. Christy, and Mrs. Catherine Hurlbutt, sisters of testatrix, residuary legatees. These allegations present the only issue of fact presented to the jury.

One of the principal grounds relied upon by appellants for reversal is that the verdict is not supported by and is contrary to the evidence, and that the court erred in not directing a verdict for proponents at the close of contestants' evidence upon proponents' motion. The only important and controlling question in the case is: Was there sufficient evidence to go to the jury on the question of undue influence? Concededly there is no direct evidence of such undue influence. The reliance of appellees is wholly upon circumstantial evidence, which consists of substantially one circumstance, namely, that C. B. Christy, who formulated the will, occupied a fiduciary relation towards the testatrix, and that his wife was one of the principal beneficiaries.

The testatrix, Mrs. Angell, was a widow without direct heirs. Her husband and only child had died more than 40 years before. From the time of her bereavement until her death, she had lived in the town of Malvern as a near neighbor to her sister, Mrs. Christy, and to her brother, Patrick Cunningham, who died shortly before the will was made, leaving the contestants herein as his only heirs at law. Mrs. Angell lived in affectionate relation both with her sister and her brother. She had one other sister, Mrs. Hurlbutt, who lived in Wyoming, and with whom she maintained correspondence. It is undisputed that she was an intelligent, self-reliant woman, who understood her own business and transacted the same in the main throughout her life. She lived alone, in her own home, comfortably, and neatly, doing always her own work, without apparent hardship, even to the caring for her own furnace, and this continued up to the day of her sudden death at the age of about 76 years.

The will under attack provided for two legacies, of $1,000 each, to grandchildren of her brother. It also provided for a life annuity of $300 a year to a sister-in-law, resident in Massachusetts. The remainder of the estate was devised equally between her two surviving sisters, Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Hurlbutt. Her property consisted of somewhat more than $11,000 of personalty in the form of bonds and cash, and a quarter section farm, which was traversed by a railroad and diminished in its acreage by 6 or 7 acres, and estimated to be of an approximate value of $250 an acre. C. B. Christy, the husband of Mrs. Christy, was a banker in the town of Malvern, with whom Mrs. Angell had always done her banking. Her farm had been rented to the same tenant for 16 years, sometimes for cash and sometimes for grain rent. Christy had always aided her in the matter of renting this land, as well as in marketing her grain share of rent. The family relations between them were cordial, and the personal kindness of Christy in extending aid was always recognized. This is the general nature of the fiduciary relation upon which the contestants rely as sufficient to go to the jury.

Christy was instrumental in the formulation of the will. He dictated to a stenographer the will which was afterwards executed by the testatrix. He received from the stenographer the written draft. He was not permitted to testify to what he did...