Lareau v. Lareau

• Decision Date: 30 December 1918
• Docket Number: No. 19529.,19529.
• Citation: 208 S.W. 241
• Parties: LAREAU v. LAREAU et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

208 S.W. 241

LAREAU v. LAREAU et al.

No. 19529.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

December 30, 1918.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Texas County; L. B. Woodside, Judge.

Petition by Jesse Lareau against Addle V. Lareau and another to contest the will of Rosa Lareau, deceased. Judgment for proponents, and contestant appeals. Affirmed.

Plaintiff filed his petition in the circuit court of Texas county on February 8, 1915, to contest the will of his sister, Rosa Lareau, made on the 22d day of April, 1914. It is charged, in substance, that the testatrix did did not have sufficient mental capacity to make a will, and that in the execution of the same she was laboring under delusions, which influenced her in the execution of the same. It is also charged that the will was procured through the undue influence of Addle V. Lareau, the sister of testatrix, and principal beneficiary in said will.

It appears from the record that the Lareau family consisting of the father, J. C. Lareau, the wife, Adelaide Lareau, and the three children, Addle, Jesse, and Rosa, came to Texas county from St. Paul, Minn., about 30 or 35 years before the death of 3. Lareau, which occurred in February, 1914. The family settled in Texas county, near the town of Cabool, on a stream known as Bear creek; The father at the time of his death owned about 2,480 acres of land, valued at from $10 to $15 per acre, located in one body, surrounding the place where he died, and some $1,200 or $1,500 worth of personal property. Shortly after the father moved to Texas county, the plaintiff, Jesse Lareau, married and settled on a farm about a mile or a mile and a half from his father and raised a family.

At the trial, proponents first introduced the two witnesses to the will, and, at the conclusion of their evidence, rested, without offering the will in evidence. Contestant presented a demurrer, which at the time was not ruled upon, and the court permitted proponents, over the objection of contestant, to read in evidence the will aforesaid, and also to recall one of the witnesses to the will for further examination. Thereupon the court overruled plaintiff's demurrer.

Contestant then introduced evidence tending to support the allegations of the petition concerning alleged delusions, hallucinations, etc., on the part of testatrix in reference to Jesse Lareau. Plaintiff's evidence tended to show that Addle Lareau, the beneficiary in the will, had been a school teacher, was well educated, and had attended the state normal school; that Rosa had no schooling except a short while, when she attended school to her sister, Addle. Her mother and sister taught her at home, and she could read and write and had been as far as interest in her arithmetic.

It appears that the family were somewhat peculiar, living more or less to themselves, and did but little visiting among their neighbors. Neither of the girls had ever married, and Rosa, at the time of her death, was about 50 years old. She was killed in an accident.

The chief contention of contestant was, and is, that Rosa, the testatrix, had for years been subject to hallucinations or delusions with reference to her brother, Jesse, which controlled her in making the will in question, and caused her to exclude him from its provisions. His evidence tends to show that while her feelings may have originally been an aversion, or acute dislike on her part for her brother, as she grew older, it developed into a conviction that he was attempting to kill her, and that this was a firmly settled conviction her part.

Contestant's daughter, Bessie Lareau, married Peterson and moved to Kansas. Before her marriage, she lived with her grandparents and resided there until she was about 13 years of age, and afterwards returned and lived with them until her marriage and removal to Kansas. The son of contestant, Harry Lareau, also lived with his grandparents a portion of the time. The relations between Rosa and this nephew and niece were always pleasant and agreeable.

Some years before the death of plaintiff's father, according to contestant's testimony, Rosa formed a settled aversion to her brother Jesse, and conceived the idea that lie had prevented her from getting married; that he had prayed that the men would not pay any attention to her; that she believed he was possessed of an evil spirit, or the evil one, and was constantly afraid he would kill her; was afraid that he would catch her, hold her, and pour poison down her throat.

It appears that Jesse went to his father's but seldom, and knew the feelings of his sister against him. At the time of his father's last sickness, plaintiff went there and assisted in nursing him.

He introduced in evidence a letter, written by Rosa Lareau shortly after her father's sickness, to Bessie Peterson, in Kansas. It contains statements tending to show that she was afraid plaintiff would kill or injure her, etc. It was shown to have been in the handwriting of testatrix, and disclosed her feelings in some respects against plaintiff.

His evidence tends to show that testatrix was afraid for Jesse to be left alone with her father; that she was afraid that he would poison the old gentleman; that she was afraid for him to stay with the family at night unless others were present; giving as a reason that she was afraid that he would kill the whole family, including herself. There is some evidence tending to show that she stated and wrote that her mother was praying for her father to get well, and he would then get better, and that Jesse, her brother, would pray for him to die, and he would then get worse; that she (Rosa) was praying that the prayers of neither one would be answered, so that the Lord's will might be done and that he would die.

His evidence tends to show that for many years, in talking about plaintiff, testatrix had charged him with preventing her marriage by reason of his prayers; that, after her father's death, she continued to fear him, and had one of the work hands procure for her a pistol, so that she could protect herself against Jesse; that both Mrs. Lareau and Harry Lareau tried to reason her out of the notion that Jesse would harm her, but without avail; and that they believed she had a settled conviction that Jesse weak' kill her if he got a chance.

The witnesses for contestant gave it as their opinion that testatrix had delusions along the above lines.

Plaintiff introduced in evidence letters written from testatrix, containing some evidence of the above delusions, and on the strength of these documents several physicians, who knew testatrix, gave it as their opinion that she had hallucinations and delusions, which would grow worse as she grew older, situated as she was, etc.

At the conclusion of the evidence for contestant, the proponents, over the objection of plaintiff, again introduced evidence in support of the mental capacity of the testatrix, and, in fact, all of their evidence on this subject, except the formal proof by the two witnesses to the will, heretofore mentioned. They called a number of witnesses living in that part of the county, some near and some more remote, who knew the testatrix from her early life up to the time of her death, and some of whom had known her more or less intimately for years. They testified that she was, as far as they had observed, of sound mind, one of whom said she was unusually bright. This evidence tended to show that she went to town and back by herself, did the trading, etc., had property, knew her property, also superintended a Sunday School, and had taken a correspondence course in the Moody Bible Institute, and that she had the ordinary intelligence of a woman with similar opportunities. The mother, Mrs. Adelaide Lareau, and sister, Addie Lareau, both testified that Rosa did not go to school after reaching Texas county, because she would have to go alone for some distance; that she was taught at home; knew her own stock, attended to her affairs, and had as much intelligence as the ordinary woman. They further testified that an estrangement had arisen between Jesse Lareau on the one hand, and practically' the Lareau family on the other; that, when Jesse was at home, he would call testatrix a fool, would say she was lazy; and that this was the reason for her aversion to him. They testified that they had never heard her say anything about being afraid he would kill her, poison her, or poison the father, or anything of that sort.

The evidence of proponents also tends to show that, during the sickness of the father, plaintiff became enraged at testatrix on account of the complaint made by her as to his conduct and threatened to put her out of the house.

Plaintiff's mother testified that he was all the time calling testatrix a fool, and finally one of the boys, in some dispute, referred to the same thing, and testatrix said she could not stand it. She went to Kansas City on account of this treatment and remained there for four months. This was in 1900.

The evidence tends to show that plaintiff "very seldom" visited his father's house, and after the father's death he and his mother had a controversy, in respect to her administering on the estate. The mother testified that she wanted to be appointed administratrix and plaintiff opposed it, on the ground that she was not competent; that she thought she was. She said that her daughters and herself were on one side, and Jesse on the other; and finally the matter was left to the public administrator to administer. She gave it as her opinion that Rosa was a smart girl and of sound mind.

Defendant Addle Lareau, testified, among other things, that she did not know Rosa was going to make a will before it was made, and that she never said anything to her about making it. Referring to the bad feeling between Jesse and the balance of the family, she said plaintiff had continually charged testatrix with being lazy, a fool, and insane; that one who had a little head like she had...