Kelley v. Johns

• Citation: 96 S.W.3d 189
• Parties: Mary Edith KELLEY, et al. v. Mahlon JOHNS.
• Decision Date: 12 July 2002
• Court: Court of Appeals of Tennessee

Page 189

96 S.W.3d 189

Mary Edith KELLEY, et al. v. Mahlon JOHNS.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, at Nashville.

July 12, 2002.

Permission to Appeal Denied By Supreme Court December 9, 2002.

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Billy C. Jack and Claudia S. Jack, Columbia, Tennessee, for the appellant Mahlon Johns.

David L. Allen, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, and Glenn L. Cox, Columbia, Tennessee, for the appellees, Mary Edith Kelley, Linda Orton, Evelyn Dolley, Nina Severson, Billie Johns, and Frankie Bostick.

OPINION

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which WILLIAM B. CAIN and PATRICIA J. COTTRELL, JJ., joined.

This appeal involves an intra-family dispute over the validity of an 88-year-old decedent's will leaving his farm to one of his nine children. After the will was admitted to probate in the Maury County Probate Court, six of the decedent's children filed suit in the Circuit Court for Maury County asserting that their father lacked testamentary capacity when he executed the will and that the will had been procured by undue influence by the child who received the farm. A jury determined that a confidential relationship existed between the decedent and his son when the disputed will was executed and that the will was procured by undue influence. Accordingly, the trial court entered an order invalidating the will and setting aside the pending probate proceeding. On this appeal, the child who received the farm from his father insists that the evidence does not support the jury's findings that he had a confidential relationship with his father and that he exerted undue influence over his father with regard to the substance of the will. We have determined that the record contains material evidence to support the jury's verdict and, therefore, affirm the judgment.

I.

Porter B. Johns, Sr. was born in July 1899 and was a lifelong resident of Maury County. He owned and operated a 450-acre farm near Columbia. Mr. Johns and his wife, Janie Lynn Johns, had nine children whom they raised on the farm. In 1978, Mr. and Ms. Johns executed reciprocal wills leaving their respective estates to each other and then to their nine children. Ms. Johns died in December 1978, and her estate passed to Mr. Johns under the terms of her will.

Mr. Johns was seventy-nine years old when his wife died. On the day of his wife's death, Mr. Johns moved in with his son and daughter-in-law, Mahlon and Ocie Lee Johns. Mr. Johns spent most of his time with Mahlon and Ocie Lee Johns and did not visit his other children as frequently as he had before his wife died. Mahlon Johns and his father ate lunch each day at the Rebel Truck Stop and dined every evening with Ocie Lee Johns in their home. Mahlon Johns drove his father to most of the places he needed to go. Mr. Johns and his son also continued to farm together, although Mr. Johns's declining health prevented him from taking an active role in maintaining the farm. From 1982 forward, Mahlon Johns owned all the farm equipment and livestock in his own name.

Aside from the income from the farm, Mr. Johns's income consisted primarily of his monthly Social Security benefits. Every week, he paid Ocie Lee Johns thirty dollars for groceries. He also gave Mahlon Johns access to his bank accounts by adding his name to one account in 1979 and later by giving him permission to write checks on another account. During the time his father lived with him, Mahlon Johns wrote several checks on each of these accounts. Many of these checks were made payable to him or to one of the business ventures he owned.

Mr. Johns's health declined rapidly during 1982 and 1983. He suffered from emphysema, vertigo, a marked loss of appetite, and various gastric disorders, and he was hospitalized several times. His mental condition deteriorated as well. He was unable to recognize persons he should have known, and he began to have bouts of anxiety and confusion. On at least one occasion, Mr. Johns experienced delusions Concerning his wife's death. Accordingly, Dr. J.O. Williams, his family physician, gave him a prescription for Haldol to alleviate some of the nervousness and delusions he was experiencing.

In 1983, Mr. Johns visited the law office of Jerry Colley, his attorney for more than twenty years, to seek assistance in drafting a new will. Mr. Johns told Mr. Colley that he desired to leave his farm to Mahlon Johns and to leave his money to his remaining children to be paid out in install-Ments over the next twenty years. Mr. Colley requested Mr. Johns to return in one week to execute his new will.

Mr. Colley did not harbor any doubt that Mr. Johns was competent to dispose of his property and to execute a will. However, he was concerned that Mr. Johns's plans for the disposition of his farm would upset his other children. Accordingly, when Mr. Johns returned to his office on February 9, 1983, Mr. Colley asked Tom Hardin, another experienced Columbia lawyer, to interview Mr. Johns privately for the purpose of forming an independent opinion regarding Mr. Johns's testamentary capacity. After speaking privately with Mr. Johns, Mr. Hardin informed Mr. Colley that he believed that Mr. Johns was competent to make a will disposing of his real and personal property.

Following Mr. Johns's conversation with Mr. Hardin, Mr. Colley reviewed the new will with Mr. Johns, and then Mr. Johns executed the will in the presence of N. Houston Parks, another Columbia lawyer, and Wynona Doggett, a legal secretary. As Mr. Johns was leaving his office, Mr. Colley suggested that he should ask his family physician to examine him to verify that he was competent to execute a will. He explained to Mr. Johns that medical verification of his capacity to execute a will could be helpful if any of his children later challenged the will.

On February 10, 1983, the day after he executed his new will, Mr. Johns paid a visit to Dr. Williams who determined that he was competent to dispose of his property and to execute a will. Dr. Williams later prepared a letter reflecting his opinion of Mr. Johns's testamentary capacity. The circumstances prompting the preparation of this letter are unclear. It may very well have been in response to Mahlon Johns's request for written verification of Dr. Williams's conclusions after questions were raised about the will.

Mr. Johns lived with Mahlon and Ocie Lee Johns until August 18, 1987, when he died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Shortly thereafter, Mahlon Johns submitted his father's February 9, 1983 will for probate. On September 10, 1987, six of Mr. Johns's other surviving children filed a complaint in the Maury County Probate Court contesting the will. Accordingly, the case was transferred to the Circuit Court for Maury County. A three-day trial ensued. After the trial court denied Mahlon Johns's motion for a directed verdict, a jury determined that Mr. Johns had testamentary capacity on February 9, 1983. However, the jury also concluded that Mahlon Johns and his father had a confidential relationship when his father executed his will and that the will had been procured by undue influence. Mahlon Johns passed away after entry of the judgment, and his estate perfected this appeal.

II.

Mahlon Johns's estate raises two issues on this appeal. First, it takes issue with the trial court's denial of his motion for a directed verdict, contending that the contestants failed to submit evidence sufficient to create a jury question on the issues of confidential relationship and undue influence. Second, the estate maintains that the record does not contain material evidence to support the jury's conclusions that Mr. Johns had a confidential relationship with Mahlon Johns when he executed his February 9, 1983 will and that Mahlon Johns exerted undue influence over his father in the preparation and execution of his will.

We need only consider here the challenge to the evidentiary foundation of the jury's verdict because the outcome of that issue necessarily dictates the fate of the estate's directed verdict claim. Directed verdicts cannot be granted unless the evidence permits reasonable minds to reach but one conclusion. Childress v. Currie, 74 S.W.3d 324, 328 (Tenn. 2002); Conatser v. Clarksville Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 920 S.W.2d 646, 647 (Tenn.1995); Eaton v. McLain, 891 S.W.2d 587, 590 (Tenn. 1994). If there is material evidence to support a jury's verdict, then, of necessity, granting a directed verdict for the losing party would have been improper because the evidence permitted reasonable minds to reach more than one conclusion. Alexander v. Armentrout, 24 S.W.3d 267, 271 (Tenn.2000).

Tennessee's traditional standard for reviewing the evidentiary foundation of a jury's verdict is codified in Tenn. R.App. P. 13(d). The rule provides that "[f]indings of fact by a jury in a civil action shall be set aside only if there is no material evidence to support the verdict." Appellate courts employing this standard may not review the evidence de novo. Alexander v. Armentrout, 24 S.W.3d at 271. Nor may they weigh the proof to determine where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Reynolds v. Ozark Motor Lines, Inc., 887 S.W.2d 822, 823 (Tenn.1994); Overstreet v. Shoney's, Inc., 4 S.W.3d 694, 718 (Tenn.Ct. App.1999). Rather, appellate courts must (1) take the strongest legitimate view of the evidence that favors the verdict, (2) assume the truth of all evidence that supports the verdict, and (3) allow all reasonable inferences to sustain the verdict. Barnes v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 48 S.W.3d 698, 704 (Tenn.2000); Dickey v. McCord, 63 S.W.3d 714, 719 (Tenn.Ct.App. 2001). If the record contains any material evidence to support the verdict, the judgment based on the verdict must be affirmed. Crabtree Masonry Co. v. C & R Constr., Inc., 575 S.W.2d 4, 5 (Tenn.1978); Moss v. Sankey, 54 S.W.3d 296, 298-99 (Tenn. Ct.App.2001).

A challenge to the evidentiary foundation for...