In re Last Will be Hollingsworth

• Decision Date: 09 June 1882
• Citation: 12 N.W. 590,58 Iowa 526
• Parties: IN RE LAST WILL OF JONAH HOLLINGSWORTH
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

12 N.W. 590

58 Iowa 526

IN RE LAST WILL OF JONAH HOLLINGSWORTH

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

June 9, 1882

Appeal from Harrison Circuit Court.

At the March term of the Harrison Circuit Court there was presented for probate an instrument purporting to be the last will of J. W. Hollingsworth, as follows: "I hereby devise and bequeath all my property and effects of whatsoever kind or class to the following named persons, and as follows, to-wit A house and lot situated on lot 5, in block 5, in the town of River Sioux, and all my personal effects of every class and description, including monies, notes, mortgages, judgments and securities, now held by me and due me, or to become due and held in my own right, to Amandy Marsh, Parker Condit, of the County of Harrison and State of Iowa that the said Amandy Marsh, Parker S. Condit, shall be to all burial expenses, and pay in full all funeral expenses the remainder to be disposed of as the said Amandy Marsh, Parker S. Condit, may direct. I hereby appoint and select Parker Condit, of Harrison County and State of Iowa as my executor to faithfully carry out the provisions of this my last will and testament. His services as executor to be paid out of the property devised. Luella Hollingsworth, daughter and heir at law of the decedent objected to the admission of the will to probate upon the ground, amongst others that it was obtained by fraud and undue influence. At the request of contestant a jury was impaneled to try the cause. Pending the trial the court withdrew the cause from the jury, and rendered judgment admitting the will to probate. The contestant appeals.

REVERSED.

S. H. Cochrane, for appellant.

No argument for the proponent.

OPINION

DAY, J.

I.

The proponent filed a motion to strike out all the evidence from the abstract and affirm the judgment, on the ground that the evidence is not preserved by any proper bill of exceptions and the abstract does not purport to give an abstract of any proper bill of exceptions. This motion was submitted with the cause. The abstract contains the following statement: "Twenty days from the 24th day of March, 1881, was given by court and opposite counsel to present and file bill of exceptions; which bill of exceptions embodying and containing all the evidence offered and introduced and all the proceedings had upon the trial, was by the judge signed on the 7th day of April, 1881, and duly filed with the...