Manley's Ex'r v. Staples
| Citation | 26 A. 630,65 Vt. 370 |
| Parties | MANLEY'S EXECUTOR v. MIRIAM A. STAPLES |
| Decision Date | 01 April 1893 |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
GENERAL TERM, 1892
Judgment affirmed and ordered to be certified to the probate court.
Butler & Moloney for the contestant.
Concerning her second and third requests and the charge relevant thereto, the defendant claims error, for that the court denied in effect that there is such a thing known to the law as an insane delusion, and left it to the jury to say whether such a thing exists.
It is true that in the commencement of the charge on this subject the court told the jury it was all a question of fact for them to say on the evidence whether there is such a mental disease or derangement as the doctors had described and called an insane delusion, and if yes, whether the testator was afflicted by it when he made his will; but the court straightway by necessary implication assumed the existence of such a disease, and proceeded to charge fully and correctly from that standpoint, telling the jury what, in view of the evidence, would constitute insane delusion in the testator and what influence such delusion if it existed must have had in the production of the will in order to invalidate it. It is clear from the whole charge on this subject that the jury could not have been misled to the prejudice of the defendant by what was said about its being for them to say whether there is such a disease.
The fourth request is not sound because, if for no other reason it ignored the contingency that the delusion might be found to have wholly and permanently disappeared before the will was made, in which case the will should not be regarded with distrust by reason of it.
It appeared that about eight months before his death, the testator left the village of Rutland, where he had resided many years, and went a little out to live with Mr. Fisk, the principal beneficiary under the will, with whom he continued to live till his death. It was while living with Fisk that he made the will and the contract therein mentioned. The testimony on the part of the defendant tended to show that the testator was continuously possessed of an insane delusion concerning his wife and his daughter for a number of years next before he went to Fisk's, and that after he went there comparatively few persons saw him, and the testimony on the part of the plaintiff tended to show that after he went there he was less demonstrative, less eccentric, and in fact better than when he left the village; and there was no evidence of false accusations against his wife and daughter after about that time. In this state of the case the defendant requested the court to charge that if the jury found that the testator was possessed of an insane delusion concerning his daughter when he left the village and had been thus possessed continuously for a number of years next before, that that condition of mind would be presumed to continue to the time of the making of the will unless they were satisfied from the evidence that a change in that condition had taken place; which the court...
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