Moran's Ex'r v. Moran

• Decision Date: 29 November 1929
• Parties: MORAN'S EX'R et al. v. MORAN et al.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

26 S.W.2d 565

233 Ky. 526

MORAN'S EX'R et al. v. MORAN et al.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

November 29, 1929

Rehearing Denied April 25, 1930.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Mason County.

Proceedings by Mrs. Mary Moran's executor and others for the probate of the will of Mrs. Mary Moran, deceased, contested by Bruce Moran and others. Judgment for contestants, and proponents appeal. Reversed, with directions.

Charles L. Daly, of Maysville, for appellants.

B. S Grannis, of Flemingsburg, for appellees.

TINSLEY C.

Mrs Mary Moran, a resident of Mason county, died July 4, 1928. On August 2, 1928, a paper purporting to be her last will and testament was admitted to probate in the Mason county court. The will was written and bears date June 16, 1928. Mrs. Moran left surviving her seven children.

By items 1 to 6, both inclusive of the will, Mrs. Moran bequeathed to her son Charles the sum of $100; to her son Bruce the sum of $600; to her son Earl the sum of $600; to her son Everett the sum of $600; to her daughter Sally the sum of $800, and to her daughter Bessie the sum of $800, all to be "paid and discharged as hereinafter set forth in item 9." By item 8 of the will she devised to her son Harry "without condition, charge or reservation absolutely and in fee simple forever" her farm in Mason county, which was all the real property possessed by her. By item 9 of the will she bequeathed to her son Harry all her personal property "with the obligation and duty incumbent and hereby imposed upon him to pay and discharge the bequests set out in items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and the payment of said bequests is hereby made a charge upon all of said property." The bequests made by items 1 to 6 inclusive aggregate $3,500. The personal property out of which the bequests are to be paid is shown by the appraisement filed in the county clerk's office of Mason county to be $1,349.22, less funeral expenses, doctors' bills, and debts of the estate. By item 11 of the will Harry Moran was nominated executor.

The children other than Harry appealed to the Mason circuit court from the order of the county court probating the will setting up as grounds of contest that, at the time the will was made, the testatrix was of unsound mind and mentally incompetent to know her property and its value, her obligations to her kindred, and to dispose of it according to a fixed purpose of her own, and that the will was procured by the undue influence of the son, Harry Moran. The trial in the circuit court resulted in a verdict in favor of the contestants, and the propounders have appealed.

The court submitted both the...