Steffke's Estate, In re, 154

• Decision Date: 06 October 1970
• Docket Number: No. 154,154
• Citation: 179 N.W.2d 846,48 Wis.2d 45
• Parties: In re ESTATE of Wesley A. STEFFKE, Decd. Nancy HOFFMANN et al., Appellants, v. WIS. VALLEY TRUST CO. et al., coexecutors et al., Respondents.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Page 846

179 N.W.2d 846

48 Wis.2d 45

In re ESTATE of Wesley A. STEFFKE, Decd Nancy HOFFMANN et al., Appellants, v. WIS. VALLEY TRUST CO. et al., coexecutors et al., Respondents.

No. 154.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Oct. 6, 1970.

Wesley A. Steffke died November 8, 1968, at the age of 62, leaving surviving two daughters and his second wife Priscilla Baker Lane Steffke, whom he married in Jury of 1967. For sake of clarity, she will be referred to throughout this opinion as Priscilla Baker Lane. On January 30, 1967, prior to his second marriage, he executed a will in which he bequeathed $100 to each of his two daughters and gave his farm and residence and the furniture, fixtures, and automobiles to 'my friend Priscilla Baker Lane.' The balance of his estate he left in trust to Priscilla Lane and the Wisconsin Valley Trust Company to use the income first for the benefit of his mother (who died prior to trial), of his grandchildren, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews, of the nieces and nephews (with some exceptions) of Priscilla Lane and then for the benefit of Priscilla Lane. After certain conditions were met, the corpus of the trust was subject to the power of appointment of Priscilla Lane to be exercised in her last will and testament. While the exact value of the estate is not before us, it was stated on oral argument that the value of the estate was between one and one-half million and one and one-quarter million dollars.

Nancy Hoffmann and Gretchen St. John, the appellants and daughters of the deceased, objected to the probate of the will on the grounds of improper execution, lack of testamentary capacity, and undue influence by Priscilla Lane. The court found the will was properly executed, that Steffke was competent at the time he executed the will, and the evidence was insufficient to meet the burden of proof to establish undue influence. The daughters appeal.

Kelly, Weber & Bolte, Wausau, for appellants.

Schmitt, Nienow, Nickel & Nolan, Merrill, for respondents.

William F. Krueger, Wausau, for guardian ad litem.

HALLOWS, Chief Justice.

Steffke was by many standards a wealthy and successful businessman. He married his first wife Dorothy in 1930. In January of 1959 she suffered a stroke which left her legally incompetent. Dorothy Steffke was a patient in St. Mary's Hospital in Wausau from 1959 to the spring of 1963. At that time she was moved to Florida by her husband and has since remained there. Her estate is estimated to be about a half million dollars.

Commencing in 1962 Mr. Steffke started seeing Priscilla Baker Lane. At that time she was married and worked at a local bank, of which Steffke was a director. The relationship was kept secret. Mrs. Lane had begun a divorce action against her husband in May, 1961, and again in April, 1962; but both actions were followed by reconciliation. In 1963 Mrs. Lane and her husband entered into a voluntary property settlement and separation, and in June, 1966, she obtained a Mexican divorce from her first husband. This divorce was arranged by Steffke. Sometime in 1964 after Steffke had removed his wife to Florida, he obtained a Mexican divorce from her without providing for a property settlement. Their daughters opposed this and were substituted for their father as guardians of their mother. Steffke then commenced a divorce action in Marathon county the latter part of 1964 and in July of 1965 obtained a divorce which provided for a property settlement at the insistence of the daughters.

In late June of 1966 Steffke suffered a severe stroke and heart attack and was hospitalized for three months. Shortly after his discharge from the hospital in September of 1966 Steffke changed the beneficiary designation on $30,000 life insurance policies from his family to Priscilla Baker Lane. Four months later in January he executed his will and six months later in July, 1967, he married Priscilla Baker Lane.

It is vigorously argued by the daughters that Steffke after his heart attack was under the influence of Priscilla Lane and this illness so changed his personality that he was susceptible to her undue influence. It is contended that Priscilla Lane's alleged clandestine relationships with Steffke while she was married to Lane branded her as a person likely to have a disposition to unduly influence Steffke for her own benefit and to the detriment of the objectors and that the will is unnatural and shows a coveted result.

The four elements often stated as necessary to establish undue influence, namely, a coveted result, susceptibility of testator to undue influence, disposition to influence, and an opportunity to do so, are claimed to be amply sustained by clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence, which is the burden of proof in undue-influence cases. Will of Freitag (1960), 9 Wis.2d 315, 101 N.W.2d 108; Will of Cooper (1965), 28 Wis.2d 391, 137 N.W.2d 93; 16 Callaghan's Wis. Digest, Undue Influence, p. 804, sec. 1. The trial court found the proof insufficient, and a careful review of the record does not convince this court the trial court was in error in admitting the will to probate. No useful purpose would be served in detailing the pro and con evidence.

It might be admitted that Steffke's will, bequeathing practically all of his estate to his second wife and cutting off his two children, is on its face an unnatural will; but there is evidence Steffke showed a great bitterness toward at least one of his two daughters and considered that both of them were well taken care of by virtue of the assets he had given his first wife, some of which she had put in trust for their ultimate benefit and the balance they would inherit by her will.

As early as January, 1966, in a letter to the parents of Mrs. Lane and prior to marrying her, Steffke stated he had 'no further financial or economic obligation' to his wife or to his children. A will unnatural on its face may by evidence be made a natural disposition. Will of Cooper, supra. Neither the cutting out of an heir or the giving of a share of an estate to an alleged influencer is ipso facto an unnatural disposition. Estate of Knutson (1957), 275 wis. 380, at 387, 82 N.W.2d 196.

On the element of susceptibility the evidence is overwhelming that the testator was stubborn and strong willed, not only before his heart attack in 1966 but thereafter. He characterized himself as a 'Krauthead.' One of the objectors testified her father was strong willed and stubborn and that characteristic persisted to the time of his death. The attorney who assisted Steffke in the preparation of his will and numerous business associates testified he had a strong will and was opinionated and these characteristics continued after his illness and up to his death. There is very little testimony that Steffke was susceptible of being unreasonably influenced excepting some medical testimony, which we will deal with later.

It is not necessary to delineate the testimony relating to the disposition of Priscilla Lane. It is quite true she had ample opportunity to influence Steffke; but this opportunity goes for naught if Steffke was impervious to such influence. In his letter to her parents, Steffke stated their daughter did not foster, promote or encourage his action to separate his life from his first wife 'and turn my thoughts to myself and my future.' This is not a case of a weak-willed man being...