Meeker v. Meeker

• Decision Date: 30 September 1874
• Citation: 75 Ill. 260,1874 WL 9234
• Parties: THEODORE MEEKER et al.v.ELIZABETH MEEKER.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

75 Ill. 260

1874 WL 9234 (Ill.)

THEODORE MEEKER et al.

v.ELIZABETH MEEKER.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1874.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. S. M. MOORE, Judge, presiding.

This was a bill in chancery, filed by Theodore and Elizabeth Bond against Elizabeth Meeker, to contest the validity of the last will and testament of Joseph Meeker, deceased, and also a codicil thereto. The material facts of the case appear in the opinion.

Messrs. SWETT & BARRY, for the appellants

Messrs. HERVEY, ANTHONY & GALT, for the appellee.

Mr. CHIEF JUSTICE WALKER delivered the opinion of the Court:

Appellants filed their bill in the Superior Court of Cook county, against appellee, to set aside the will of Joseph Meeker, deceased, which was executed on the 13th day of May, 1871, and the codicil thereto attached, bearing date the 27th day of November of the same year. The grounds upon which it is sought to impeach the will are, first, the want of capacity in testator, when he executed these instruments, to make a testamentary disposition of his property; and on the further ground that appellee had, by undue influence over testator, procured these instruments to be made, which, it is claimed, were made contrary to his intention and desire, by reason of such undue influence.

Testator, at the time of his death, was about sixty-five years of age. Appellee was his third wife, and appellants were his children by his first, he having none by the two latter. He was married to appellant in April, 1865, and he died in January, 1872. About ten years before his death he had a paralytic stroke, from which he seemed to recover. He continued to attend to his business as usual. Again, in the summer of 1871, he had another stroke -- the precise date is disputed -- and he had a third in the following January, from which he died in about three days afterward.

A trial was had under the statute, and the jury found that when the will was made, testator had sufficient capacity to make it, but did not have the necessary capacity to make the codicil. They therefore found in favor of the will and against the codicil. A motion for a new trial was entered, but was overruled by the court, and a decree rendered on the verdict, establishing the will and setting aside the codicil. And from that decree complainants appeal to this court and assign various errors.

It is urged that the finding of the jury is against the evidence, and that the court below should for that reason have granted a new trial.

There were between forty and fifty witnesses examined on each side, and some four or five more for appellants than for appellee. The witnesses were well acquainted with the deceased, and many of them had known him many years, as he was one of the old citizens of Chicago. As is usually the case, there was much diversity of opinion and conflict in the evidence. Most of appellee's witnesses regarded him up till about the time of his death, and until after the will was made, as of sound and disposing mind. On the contrary, appellants' witnesses generally regarded him of unsound mind prior to and at the time the will was executed. The witnesses seem, generally, on both sides, to have been intelligent and fair, and the difference of opinion seems to have been honest, and were influenced by a contrariety of judgment, and not by prejudice or undue motives, with perhaps a few exceptions.

This want of agreement among the great mass of men as to what constitutes insanity, or imbecility, has always existed, and perhaps will continue indefinitely. Even among the educated, and those who have devoted a lifetime to the study of the disease of insanity and the impairment and decay of the human intellectual faculties, with their causes, symptoms, prevention and cure, there is a want of harmony of views. Various theories are advanced and rules promulgated, but, owing to the impossibility of knowing what constitutes mind and in what manner it acts, it may, and probably will, be in the distant future, if ever, before any reliable knowledge on the subject in all of its parts can be attained. Within the last half century the question has attracted the attention of men of great ability, research, and observation, and considerable progress has been made; but as yet it can hardly be regarded as having been reduced to a science.

Various theories are propounded -- some practicable and some impracticable. This test has been adopted by some: that sanity must be regarded as a straight line, and all deviations from it prove insanity, in the degree and to the extent of departure. That the incapacity to reason logically, both deductively and inductively, is evidence of insanity, or at least a want of mental capacity. Whilst this may be true philosophically, yet it could never be adopted and applied to every day affairs among men. We find large numbers of persons whose minds do not run in straight lines, and who neither reason logically, deductively or inductively, on all or even a majority of subjects, and yet they are found to be able, capable and efficient business men in the various pursuits of life. To adopt the rule as stated, it is believed that but few would be found to be sane, or to have mental capacity according to that standard.

The business of the world must go on, and some practical test must be adopted by which it can be determined whether men are to be held responsible for their acts, and whether their contracts shall be enforced. And whether precisely accurate according to the laws of mind or not, public necessity requires the adoption of a rule that best subserves the interests and well-being of society. To adopt the rule just stated would be to hold that few, if any, could be convicted criminally, or be bound by their contracts, held to discharge their various duties to their country, to society, to their families, or even themselves. Until human nature shall advance to a greatly more elevated plane intellectually, such a rule could not be fully adopted, and acted upon and enforced, without interminable confusion, amounting to anarchy. It is believed that but few of those who have devoted themselves to the observation and study of the human mind, in both its normal and abnormal conditions, are inclined to propound such a rule. It is, in fact, believed by many that no fixed rule can be adopted embracing all cases, owing to the great difference in the physical and intellectual organization of individuals. Temperament, nervous force, and physical organizations differ in infinite degrees and variations, and these are all supposed to have either a direct or remote influence on the intellectual powers. If so, general rules must necessarily be limited in their application, and the exceptions, to some of them at least, will be numerous and various in their character.

The object in organizing government is the protection of the people from external and internal injury, oppression and wrong. The political powers of modern governments are variously distributed, but the governed are left free to acquire, dispose of, and enjoy property, accumulate wealth, and enjoy its advantages, where the frame of the government is beneficent, and the laws are wisely and energetically enforced. And all things which impede or obstruct the governed in the pursuit and enjoyment of these ends are pernicious to the body politic. To adopt a high and impracticable standard by which to test intellectual capacity to contract with others, and to use and dispose of property, would operate injuriously on communities, and retard commerce, trade, and in fact the entire business interests of the community. Hence the government must adopt that rule which will best advance the interests of society, and protect the weak and intellectually feeble. The rule, to operate beneficially to the whole people, must give large freedom for action, and exclude but the few.

It is upon this principle that all governments fix the periods at which the governed are made responsible for their acts toward their fellow men, and are bound by their agreements. Hence they are declared of age at one period to be punished for crime, at another to contract marriage, and at another to become liable to serve the government in repelling foreign invasion,...