Fowler v. Crandall (In re Mullan's Will)

• Decision Date: 05 October 1909
• Citation: 122 N.W. 723,140 Wis. 291
• Parties: IN RE MULLAN'S WILL. FOWLER v. CRANDALL.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

140 Wis. 291

122 N.W. 723

IN RE MULLAN'S WILL.FOWLER

v.CRANDALL.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Oct. 5, 1909.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Dunn County; E. W. Helms, Judge.

Application by Roland D. Crandall for the probate of the will of Mary R. Mullan, deceased, to which Hattie Fowler filed objections. An order of the county court denying probate was reversed on appeal to the circuit court, and contestant appeals. Affirmed.

This proceeding was commenced in the county court for Dunn county by a petition for the probate of the will of Mary R. Mullan, deceased. A contest was filed to the probate in behalf of Hattie Fowler, an insane daughter and the sole heir at law of the deceased. The county court found that the testatrix did not have sufficient mental capacity to make a will at the time of the execution of the alleged will, and that the execution of it was obtained by fraud and undue influence. Probate of the writing was denied. Upon appeal to the circuit court judgment was entered reversing the judgment of the county court, and ordering the probate of the alleged will. This is an appeal from such judgment.

Mary R. Mullan died at Red Wing, Minn., February 13, 1908, aged 74 1/2 years. The alleged will was executed two months before at the residence of R. D. Crandall in Red Wing, to which the deceased had gone in the previous October from her home at Menomonie, Wis. Hattie Fowler, a daughter and the sole heir at law of the deceased, is the contestant. She has been confined in a county insane asylum since 1892. The deceased also left surviving her three sisters and four brothers. Maggie Crandall, the wife of R. D. Crandall, was taken into the home of the deceased when she was seven years of age, and continued to live there until her marriage. She was never adopted, but is referred to in the will as the adopted daughter of the deceased. After providing for the debts of the deceased and for funeral expenses, the will gives Hattie Fowler $3,000; $10 is given to each of the brothers and sisters of the deceased, and the residue of the estate is then devised to Maggie Crandall and her husband. The deceased at the time of her death possessed about $100 worth of personal property. The balance of her estate, between $26,000 and $28,000, consisted of real estate, about one-half of which was situated in Minnesota and one-half in Wisconsin. Her indebtedness, exclusive of $1,000 incurred as funeral expenses, was from $5,000 to $6,000. The estate of the deceased had been accumulated by conducting a millinery store in Menomonie. She had been twice married; her first husband dying some 15 years before she did, and her second husband 4 or 5 years before.

In behalf of the contestant of the will it is claimed that the evidence introduced shows that the deceased was of insufficient mental capacity to make a will; that she was physically weak and feeble, and that her mental faculties had become impaired to such an extent that she was unable to comprehend and understand her business affairs, that she was unable to keep in mind her relationship and natural obligations to her daughter and relatives, and lost mental control of herself and her property to an extent which evinced her incapacity to transact business or to make a will; and that this condition had existed for a considerable...