McWilliams v. Neill
| Decision Date | 03 November 1941 |
| Docket Number | 4-6440 |
| Citation | 155 S.W.2d 344,202 Ark. 1087 |
| Parties | MCWILLIAMS v. NEILL |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Jefferson Probate Court; Harry T. Wooldridge, Judge affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Sam M. Levine, for appellant.
Danaher & Danaher, for appellee.
Mrs Addie Parker, on July 23, 1938, made a will in which she gave to appellee, Annie Laurie Neill, the bulk of her property. Mrs. Parker died on May 2, 1940, nearly two years after the will was executed. The will was admitted to probate and record on May 13, 1940.
The appellants filed exceptions to and protest against the will on May 25, 1940. The contestants stated in their protest that the will was not executed by Mrs. Parker; that it was not witnessed in conformity with the statutes of the state of Arkansas and the law relating to the execution and attestation of wills, and that if the will was signed by Mrs. Parker, she lacked the mental capacity to execute a valid will at the time when it is alleged she signed and executed it; that she was incompetent to transact any business of any nature requiring any judgment whatsoever; that Mrs. Neill, the appellee, procured the execution of said will and is apparently designated as the main beneficiary and legatee under the will; that for several months prior to the date on which the will was executed, the said Mrs. Neill exercised complete and undue influence over the testatrix and completely and fully controlled all of her finances and disbursed practically all of Mrs. Parker's money; and the execution of the will was the direct result of the exercise of undue and overpowering influence.
It, therefore, appears that the contestants allege that the will is invalid because, they say, Mrs. Parker was not competent to make the will and because of the undue influence of Mrs. Neill.
The chancellor, after hearing the evidence and argument of counsel, found all the issues of fact and law in favor of the appellee; admitted the will to probate and ordered that it be duly recorded as the last will and testament of Addie Parker, deceased. To the court's finding, the contestants duly excepted and prayed an appeal to the Supreme Court, which was granted. The case is now here on appeal.
A great many witnesses testified in the case; in fact twenty-nine witnesses testified for the proponents, and seventeen for the contestants. Mr. Cook, an attorney of Texarkana, Arkansas, wrote the will and testified in behalf of the proponent. He said that Mrs. Parker gave him the list of relatives, and Mrs. Neill did not give him the names of any of the nephews and nieces; Mrs. Parker wrote them out; that he did not pay any attention to Mrs. Parker's inability to walk without being supported; that coming into the building there are some 15 or 20 steps, and his office is on the third floor; he never talked to Mrs. Neill about the matter; he never advised Mrs. Neill that there was a will, and does not know whether she knew it or not; witness represented Mr. Claude Parker, Mrs. Neill's brother; knew the Parkers a long time and met Mrs. Parker in Mrs. Neill's home; had never handled any matter for the Parkers after the execution of the will; he never mentioned the will transaction to anybody except Mr. Danaher in his office on May 4th; Mrs. Parker did not act like she was mentally incapacitated; he read the will to her after it was written and read it to the witnesses; Mrs. Parker signed with a pen and the witnesses signed in her presence.
Mr. and Mrs. Butcher, who witnessed the will, testified in substance that they signed the will as witnesses; signed it in Judge Cook's office; Mrs. Neill did not go with them, and Mrs. Parker told them not to mention the matter to Mrs. Neill; Mr. Butcher said that Mrs. Parker was perfectly healthy as far as he knew; did not notice anything abnormal, or any disability.
Mr. E. A. Howell testified in substance that he was engaged in the automobile business at Pine Bluff for fourteen years and knew Mrs. Parker about that length of time; he sold her an automobile in 1928, in 1938, and another one in June, 1938; the last car was sold to her after her husband's death; she traded in an old Dodge; during the negotiations he saw her five or six times; had some trouble closing the deal; she was hard to trade with; thinks the condition of her mind was good; did not see any tendency to weak-mindedness; that she used good judgment and handled the transaction herself; rode with Mrs. Parker several times and did not notice anything wrong with her mind.
Edwin Wells had been engaged in the monument business for the last seven years, testified in substance that he sold a stone to Mrs. Parker for her husband's grave; Mrs. Parker seemed to know what she wanted and signed the contract and paid for the stone; would say that she was about average for a woman of her age; there was nothing to indicate any weak mental condition.
Charles A. Gordon, cashier of Simmons National Bank, testified in substance that he came in contact with Mrs. Parker on the death of her husband; that she did business with the bank until some time last year; talked with her before guardianship papers were taken out; as far as he knew she signed her own checks and later they were countersigned by Mrs. Neill; Mrs. Parker was in bad health and he thought someone should help her; he thinks she was mentally capable of attending to business and thinks she understood the transactions.
Mr. A. C. Stewart, on behalf of the contestants, testified in substance that he had some difficulty with Mrs. Parker about some roses; she had approved his planting some roses on the boundary line, and after the bushes had grown and were blooming, witness noticed someone digging in the middle of the flowers; Mrs. Parker informed him that she did not want any roses on her fence and instructed the yard boy to cut them down; witness decided not to have anything further to do with her; never associated with her afterwards, but saw her quite often; regards her as weak-minded, commencing about four years ago; she was crippled and something seemed to be wrong with her right arm; looked like she was in a trance at times; thinks she knew what she was doing in 1937, but thinks it got worse; does not think her mind was right; in the last few months of her life she completely lost her mind.
Numerous witnesses testified that they knew Mrs. Parker intimately and that her mind was normal, nothing wrong with it. Several witnesses testified for the contestants substantially the same as Mr. Stewart.
It would serve no useful purpose to copy all of the evidence. The chancellor found that the evidence showed that Mrs. Parker was capable of making a will, and we think the great weight of testimony supports his finding on this issue.
There was practically no effort to prove any undue influence that would make the will void. The appellee, Mrs Neill, was a sister of Mrs. Parker's husband, and from the evidence they were very intimate. A portion of the estate Mrs. Parker had was received from the railroad company for the...
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