Taylor v. Callahan
| Decision Date | 07 January 1929 |
| Citation | 265 Mass. 582,164 N.E. 445 |
| Parties | TAYLOR v. CALLAHAN. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Probate Court, Hampden County; Chas. L. Long, Judge.
Petition by Arthur G. Taylor, executor, for the proof of the will of John A. Callahan, deceased. From a denial of the motion to frame a jury issue, contestants appeal. Affirmed.
William P. Hayes, of Springfield, and Charles Ward Johnson and Charles B. Rugg, both of Worcester, for appellants.
Stephen S. Taft, Joseph B. Ely, and Frederick M. Kingsbury, all of Springfield, for petitioner.
This is an appeal from the denial by the Probate Court of a motion to frame a jury issue on a petition for the allowance of a will. The petition for proof of the will of John A. Callahan, late of Holyoke, was filed January 11, 1927. Legal notice to show cause, if any, why the petition should not be granted was issued by the Probate Court and duly served. Three sisters and a brother of the decedent, who were his only heirs at law and next of kin, appeared in opposition thereto and filed a motion for the following issue to a jury: ‘Was the said John A. Callahan at the time of the execution of the said alleged will of sound mind?’ At their request the testimony of witnesses who were orally examined before the Probate Court was taken stenographically, pursuant to G. L. c. 215, § 18. The motion was denied and the contestants appealed.
The testimony thus taken warranted the finding of the following facts: John A. Callahan, a former school teacher, died December 29, 1926, at the age of sixty-eight. During the last two years of his life he was in feeble health. In 1924, he suffered a paralytic shock which affected his power of speech and the control of his emotions, and which weakened him both physically and mentally. Up to that time he was a man of culture and refinement, academic in his tastes, careful as to his personal appearance and prudent and conservative in the management of his property. Thereafter he became slovenly, unkempt, untidy in personal appearance, uncouth in manner, careless with and disregardful of his money, and in other ways so obnoxious that his company was shunned.
On the other hand, to controvert this testimony a number of witnesses called by the proponent of the will testified to his keenness of mind, acute grasp of current events, and shrewd control of his own affairs, during the two years last preceding his death. The testimony of these witnesses warranted a finding that whatever may have been his physical defects or mental peculiarities he in fact attended to his own business affairs, traveled about as he pleased,...
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