Dixon v. Curtis, 48948

• Citation: 340 So.2d 722
• Decision Date: 30 November 1976
• Docket Number: No. 48948,48948
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Parties: Georgie B. DIXON et al. v. Pearl Lee CURTIS et al.

Page 722

340 So.2d 722

Georgie B. DIXON et al. v. Pearl Lee CURTIS et al.

No. 48948.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Nov. 30, 1976.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 12, 1977.

Singley, Minniece, Hamilton, Neville & Hamill, Thomas Y. Minniece, Meridian, for appellants.

Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, Jackson, Riddell & Dabbs, Quitman, R. Gordon Grantham, Jackson, Tally D. Riddell, Quitman, for appellees.

Before GILLESPIE, C.J., and SUGG and BROOM, JJ.

GILLESPIE, Chief Justice, for the Court.

This appeal involves two separate cases and is a sequel to Keeler v. Boteler, 267 So.2d 319 (Miss.1972).

The two cases, on involving a contest of the alleged will of Anna Belle Burnett, and the other involving the heirship of Granville Barnett, a/k/a Earl Burnett, were tried together in the Chancery Court of Clarke County, Mississippi. Georgie B. Dixon and her grantees were the successful litigants in Keeler and the unsucessful litigants in the two cases now under consideration.

In Keeler, Georgie B. Dixon was adjudged the sole heir of Anna Belle Burnett, who was adjudged the sole heir of Granville Barnett, a/k/a Earl Burnett, and she and her grantees were adjudged the owners of a 29/30th interest in and to a parcel of land in Clarke County, Mississippi.

Before this Court's affirmance of the decree in Keeler, and on June 29, 1972, Pearl Lee Curtis, Mildred C. House and Myrtle Dilworth, who were not parties to Keeler, and their grantees filed suit against Georgie B. Dixon and her grantees averring that Pearl Lee Curtis was the daughter of Granville Barnett, a/k/a Earl Burnett, hereinafter Earl Burnett, and, together with Burnett's widow, Anna Belle Burnett, were the sole heirs of Earl Burnett, deceased; that Mildred C. House and Myrtle Dilworth were the sole heirs of Anna Belle Burnett; and that Georgie B. Dixon was not related to Anna Belle Burnett. The bill of complaint also charged that the decree in Keeler was After a lengthy hearing, the court entered a decree adjudging that the purported will of Anna Belle Burnett was a forgery. In the heirship case, the court set aside the former decree (involved in Keeler) on the ground that it was based on false and fraudulent testimony and evidence constituting a fraud perpetrated upon the court, and held that Earl Burnett died intestate and left as his joint heirs his widow, Anna Belle Burnett, and his daughter, Pearl Lee Curtis, each of whom inherited a one-half interest in the subject property, and at the time of Anna Belle Burnett's death she left as her joint heirs her two first cousins, Mildred C. House and Myrtle Dilworth, each of whom inherited a one-fourth interest in the subject property.

rendered on false and fraudulent testimony and constituted a fraud on the court. After this last suit was at issue and about two days before it was set for trial, all parties were notified that Georgie B. Dixon had discovered a holographic will of Anna Belle Burnett devising all of her property to Georgie B. Dixon. This will was probated in common form on January 7, 1974. Pearl Lee Curtis, Mildred C. House and Myrtle Dilworth contested the validity of the alleged holographic will, charging that it was a forgery. Thereafter, the trial court declined to consolidate the two causes for trial, but allowed evidence in either cause relevant to and admissible in the other cause to be considered by the court in reaching its decision in either or both cases.

THE WILL CASE

Georgie B. Dixon, as proponent of the purported holographic will of Anna Belle Burnett, according to the terms of which Georgie B. Dixon was the sole devisee of Anna Belle Burnett, offered the proceedings wherein the will was probated in common form, and rested.

Georgie B. Dixon was called as an adverse witness and testified that she found the purported will an Anna Belle Burnett's Bible and that this Bible was in a trunk containing the effects of Anna Belle Burnett.

The proof showed that for many years Georgie B. Dixon and Anna Belle Burnett had lived together. This trunk and its contents had been in the possession of Georgie B. Dixon about five or six years before the will was found. The contestants offered the testimony of Lucille P. Lacy of Houston, Texas, who qualified as an examiner of questioned documents. She testified that the person who wrote the will was not the same person who wrote the various stipulated samples of Anna Belle Burnett's writing. She testified that the person who wrote Anna Belle Burnett's name on the flyleaf of the Bible also wrote and signed the will.

Donald Doud of Chicago, Illinois, was qualified as an examiner of questioned documents, and he testified that the person who wrote the holographic will was not the same as the person who wrote the stipulated samples of Anna Belle Burnett's writing. He testified that the same person who wrote 'Anna Belle Burnett' on the flyleaf of the Bible was the same person who wrote the will. Doud also testified that an examination of the Bible showed that the page preceding the flyleaf containing Anna Belle Burnett's purported signature had been removed and there were indentations on the page containing Anna Belle Burnett's signature, indicating that someone had written on the missing page but he could not determine what had been written on the missing page.

There was a great deal of other testimony offered pro and con on the question of the validity of the will. Bessie Blocker, who lived next door to Anna Belle Burnett and had known her since 1937, testified that she gave the Bible in question to Anna Belle Burnett and saw Anna Belle write her name on the flyleaf. C. D. Brooks of Birmingham, Alabama, was qualified as a specialist in questioned documents, and he was of the opinion that the person who wrote the will also wrote the stipulated samples. He also testified that the person who wrote the signature of Anna Belle Burnett in the Bible also wrote the stipulated samples and the holographic will.

The will case raises two questions.

1. Was the chancellor's finding that the will was a forgery against the overwhelming weight of the testimony?

Appellants have analyzed in great detail the testimony of the two experts who testified on behalf of the contestants. We have carefully examined appellants' arguments but we are unable to say that the chancellor erred in finding that the will was a forgery. It is true that because Georgie B. Dixon had lived with Anna Belle Burnett for many years prior to the latter's death and had referred to Anna Belle Burnett as her aunt, Georgie B. Dixon probably would have been the natural object of Anna Belle Burnett's bounty. It was also shown that several investigators had talked to Georgie B. Dixon over a period of five or six years, searching for information concerning the heirship of Earl Burnett and Anna Belle Burnett. The chancellor had a right to take into consideration the probability that the will, which consisted of one sheet of tablet paper and was said to have been found in Anna Belle Burnett's Bible, would have been found at an earlier date. The chancellor was also justified in believing the testimony of the two experts who testified for the contestants and in rejecting the testimony of the expert who testified for Georgie B. Dixon. No good purpose would be served by a delineation of the extensive testimony offered pro and con on the issue of whether the will was a forgery. In our opinion, this was a question of fact for the chancellor's decision and we find no reason...