In re Estate of Evers
| Decision Date | 02 March 1948 |
| Citation | 34 So.2d 561,160 Fla. 225 |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
| Parties | In re EVERS' ESTATE. POTTS et al. v. AMERICAN LEGION HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN. |
Rehearing Denied April 22, 1948.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Pinellas County; Victor O Wehle, judge.
L. P Hardee, of St. Petersburg, for Alice Potts et al. (heirs of Carrie F. Evers), and Ed W. Harris, of St. Petersburg, for Florida National Bank of Jacksonville, Administrator of Carrie F. Evers' estate, appellants.
Austin L Richardson and William B. Tippetts, both of St. Petersburg for appellee.
Carrie F. Evers died in Pinellas County, Florida, on November 25, 1945. No will being found, the county judge duly appointed an administrator of her estate.
On December 21, 1945, the American Legion Hospital for Crippled Children filed a petition in the proceedings, which petition alleged that on May 7, 1945, Carrie F. Evers was of sound mind and memory, and, not acting under duress or restraint, executed and caused to be witnessed her last will and testament and that a true copy of the will was attached to the petition; that diligent search and inquiry had been made, but that the original will could not be found; that same was lost or destroyed by accident or design.
The petition further alleged that the will had not been revoked, annulled, or canceled, and prayed that the copy attached by established and admitted to probate as a copy of a missing last will and testament.
The heirs and the administrators filed answer, denying the material allegations of the petition and alleging that the will was revoked by the deceased in some manner authorized by law during the time she was mentally sound.
The cause was heard before the county judge, and after hearing the evidence he found that the evidence did not sustain a finding of accidental loss or destruction and neither did it sustain a finding of fraudulent destruction thereof, and, by the entry of his order denying the prayer of the petition, necessarily found that the will was destroyed by the deceased in some manner authorized by law at a time when she was mentally sound.
The county judge, in dismissing the petition of appellees, recognized and applied the presumption that a will known to have been executed and retained in the possession of testatrix and not found after her death was presumptively destroyed by the testatrix for the purpose of revocation.
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Lonergan v. Estate of Budahazi
...presumption arises that the testator destroyed the will with the intention of revocation. Potts, et al. v. American Legion Hospital for Crippled Children, 160 Fla. 225, 34 So.2d 561 (1948); Walton v. Estate of Walton, 601 So.2d 1266 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992), rev. denied, 617 So.2d 319 (Fla.1993);......
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Estate of Parson
...revoking it. Schaefer v. Voyle, 88 Fla. 170, 102 So. 7 (1924); Stewart v. Johnson, 142 Fla. 425, 194 So. 869 (1940); In re Evers' Estate, 160 Fla. 225, 34 So.2d 561 (1948); In re Washington's Estate, 56 So.2d 545 (Fla.1952); Upson v. Estate of Carville, 369 So.2d 113 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979). Th......
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Guelman v. de Guelman
...given by an expert on the law of such foreign jurisdiction, even though such expert opinion may be in dispute. In Re: Evers' Estate, 160 Fla. 225, 34 So.2d 561 (1948); Mori v. Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, 380 So.2d 461 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980); Clausi v. Casner Motors, Inc., 112 So......
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Baird's Estate, In re
...revoking it. Schaefer v. Voyle, 88 Fla. 170, 102 So. 7 (1924); Stewart v. Johnson, 142 Fla. 425, 194 So. 869 (1940), In re Evers' Estate, 160 Fla. 225, 34 So.2d 561 (1948). While, as the quotation marks we have placed around the word 'presumption' are intended to indicate, its precise natur......