Parker v. Lambertz

• Decision Date: 13 July 1905
• Citation: 104 N.W. 452,128 Iowa 496
• Parties: PARKER ET AL. v. LAMBERTZ ET AL.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

128 Iowa 496

104 N.W. 452

PARKER ET AL.

v.LAMBERTZ ET AL.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

July 13, 1905.

Appeal from District Court, Montgomery County; N. W. Macy, Judge.

Action at law to set aside the probate of a will, and to have the will held for naught, as having been procured by fraud, duress, and undue influence. At the conclusion of the evidence offered for plaintiffs, the court, on motion, directed a verdict for the defendants, and plaintiffs appeal from a judgment on such directed verdict. Affirmed.Richards & Richards, W. E. Mitchell, and Jennings & Crose, for appellants.

Beeson & Pomeroy and Junkin & Pringle, for appellees.

McCLAIN, J.

The evidence on behalf of plaintiffs tended to show the following facts, which we shall consider without discussing the competency of the evidence or the materiality of the facts which it tended to establish: The testatrix, Sarah Ellen Parker, the mother of Arthur W. Parker and Lelia McBride, who are plaintiffs, and of Minnie Lambertz and Mattie Lykins, who are defendants, resided on a farm in Montgomery county, about 5 miles from the residence of Arthur W. Parker, who is designated in the record as Dr. Parker, and 10 miles from the residence of the Lambertzes. The other daughters were nonresidents of the state. On the 1st of March, 1902, Dr. Parker took his mother from the home of the Lambertzes, where she was temporarily visiting, if we understand the record, to the city of Red Oak, about 12 miles distant, and brought her back on the evening of the same day. After he had gone his mother said that she “never was so proud of her boy in her life as she was that day--he was so kind to her”--and used other like expressions with reference to him, to which Mrs. Lambertz responded “that he was so good and kind to her so he could get more money out of her.” Testatrix remained at the home of the Lambertzes for some time, and, about a week after the occurrence just referred to, she went with her daughter and son-in-law to Red Oak, and there executed the will in controversy, by which she gave $1,000 to her daughter Mattie Lykins, $100 to her daughter Lelia McBride, and the balance of her estate to Minnie Lambertz; appointing F. Lambertz, her son-in-law, executor, and exempting him from obligation to give bond. In this will she recites that she leaves nothing to her son, Arthur W. Parker, for the reason that she has advanced to him during her lifetime all that she desired him to have. It appears that some years before she had executed a will providing for the distribution of her estate in equal shares to her children. Her estate consisted at the time of the execution of the last will and at the time of her death of 80 acres of land, of the value of about, $6,800. Dr. Parker testified that he had never received any advancement of any kind from his mother. For about a year after the execution of this will, testatrix resided at her own home, but, being seized with a serious illness in June, 1903, at her request she was taken to the home of the Lambertzes, where she died in July. During her last illness she made declarations to a sister who was with her at the Lambertzes, assisting to take care of her, that she regretted the making of the last will, and wished she could restore the...