Coker v. Cooper's Estate
| Decision Date | 28 April 1915 |
| Docket Number | (No. 5463.) |
| Citation | 176 S.W. 145 |
| Parties | COKER v. COOPER'S ESTATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Harris County; Wm. Masterson, Judge.
Proceedings by E. W. Robinson for the probate of the will of H. C. Cooper, deceased, in which Abraham Coker appeared as contestant, and in which Bettie Collins intervened. From a judgment admitting the will to probate, contestant appeals. Affirmed.
Baldwin & Baldwin and John L. Meany, all of Houston, for appellant. Harry Holmes, of Houston, for appellee.
The consideration of this case carries us back to antebellum days, and gives us a partial view of life among the slaves "way down on the Suwanee river"; for there on the verdant banks of that seductive stream abode one Creecy Brandon, a damsel of dusky hue, who at that time found favor in the sight of one H. C. Cooper, another slave. After emancipation, Cooper joined the army and marched away in the uniform of a soldier, never again to return; for he settled at Houston, Tex., where he lived to a ripe old age. But the record shows that his heart "was turning ever" to Georgia's song-famed stream. The relations between Cooper and Creecy Brandon were doubtless very friendly, and, while he did not know her second daughter's name, he seemed convinced that in her veins coursed the blood of his own lineage; for as he sat in his cabin in far away Texas, looking back over the lapse of half a century, memory again turned to the Suwanee river, and the unfulfilled obligations of his early manhood. Creecy had preceded him across "that other River" some 30 years, but the child remained, and there is where the old negro's heart was turning when he considered what he should do with the small share of this world's goods that he possessed. He made a will and gave his property to Creecy Brandon's second daughter, who is Bettie Collins, the same who won this suit below. Cooper died in Harris county, Tex., November 9, 1911, and on November 13th of the same year, E. W. Robinson filed for probate a will of the said Cooper, wherein, after providing for the payment of his debts, he bequeathed to "My beloved daughter, a child born out of holy wedlock, the same being a girl child and being the second child born to Creecy Brandon, who at the time of the emancipation of the African slaves in this country in the year 1865 belonged to Joe Brandon, a slaveholder, who lived in the county of Gwinnett, in the state of Georgia, near the Suwanee river, the name of which child I do not know," etc. On January 23, 1912, Abraham Coker, Cooper's brother, filed a contest of the will, alleging that this was not the will of H. C. Cooper; that he never signed the same and never ordered it signed for him; that there was no such beneficiary in existence as mentioned in the will; that at the time the will purported to have been executed Cooper was not of sound mind and was laboring under insane delusions; and that undue influence was used on him by Broyles and Robinson to get him to execute the same. It is charged that M. H. Broyles, a negro lawyer, who drew the will, and E. W. Robinson, the executor named, knew of his condition and that Cooper could not understand what he was doing, and, by pretending to be his friends, when in fact they were not, they induced the execution of said will, in the belief that no such beneficiary as therein described existed; the purpose being to deprive contestant of the property as the testator's heir. Bettie Collins, of Calhoun county, Ala., was permitted to intervene, and she alleged that she exactly fits the description of the beneficiary in the will; that she was the second child born to Creecy Brandon, who at the time of her birth, and at the time of the emancipation of the slaves, belonged to Joe Brandon, a slaveholder, who lived in Gwinnett county, state of Georgia, near the Suwanee river; and that she was the person referred to in the will. The will was admitted to probate in the county court, an appeal taken to the district court of Harris county, where the case was tried upon special issues again resulting in establishing the fact...
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Jones v. Davis
...§§ 1346 et seq. (3d ed.1980); Smith v. McDowell, 240 S.W. 563 (Tex.Civ.App. Dallas 1922, no writ); Coker v. Cooper's Estate, 176 S.W. 145 (Tex.Civ.App. San Antonio 1915, writ ref'd). On the other hand, under the provisions of the statute, a child seeking to prove his entitlement to inherit ......
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Davis v. Williams
...confessed to him that he was the illegitimate son of Jeff Davis, and this was admissible "as being family history." Coker v. Cooper's Estate, Tex.Civ.App., 176 S.W. 145, 146. Nor do we sustain the contention of appellant that the court erred in admitting in evidence the opinion of nonexpert......
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