Williams v. Crickman

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: KLUCZYNSKI
• Citation: Williams v. Crickman, 405 N.E.2d 799, 81 Ill.2d 105, 39 Ill.Dec. 820 (Ill. 1980)
• Decision Date: 30 May 1980
• Docket Number: No. 52591,52591
• Parties: , 39 Ill.Dec. 820 Gertrude R. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Jerald A. CRICKMAN, Ex'r, et al., Appellees.

Page 799

405 N.E.2d 799

81 Ill.2d 105, 39 Ill.Dec. 820

Gertrude R. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Jerald A. CRICKMAN, Ex'r, et al., Appellees.

No. 52591.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

May 30, 1980.

Charles G. Roth and Phillip B. Lenzini, Peoria (Kavanagh, Scully, Sudow, White & Frederick, Peoria, of counsel), for appellant.

Rosenberg, Rosenberg, Bickes & Johnson, Chartered, Decatur (Wayne L. Bickes, Decatur, of counsel), for appellees.

KLUCZYNSKI, Justice:

Plaintiff, Gertrude R. Williams, a residuary legatee under an instrument admitted to probate purporting to be the last will and testament of Florence M. East, filed a will contest in the circuit court of Piatt County. In the action, she sought a declaration that one paragraph in the instrument, allegedly executed as a result of the undue influence of defendant Jerald A. Crickman and decedent's attorney, Wayne L. Bickes, is null and void. The circuit court ruled that the sole issue in a will contest is the validity of the instrument as a whole and that it was without authority to invalidate one provision only. In addition, the court found that plaintiff, not an heir of decedent, could take only under the provisions of the instrument and therefore ruled that she was not an interested person under section 8-1 of the Probate Act of 1975 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1977, ch. 110 1/2, par. 8-1) and dismissed the action with prejudice. The appellate court, relying upon Snyder v. Steele (1922), 304 Ill. 387, 136 N.E. 649, affirmed the rulings of the circuit court (75 Ill.App.3d 1105, 35 Ill.Dec. 863, 399 N.E.2d 1391) in an unpublished order issued pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 23 (73 Ill.2d R. 23). Plaintiff appealed to this court pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 315 (73 Ill.2d R. 315), and we granted leave to appeal.

Florence M. East, a resident of Piatt County, died on May 17, 1978. On June 1, 1978, defendant Crickman filed a petition for probate of a will and the issuance of letters testamentary in the circuit court of Piatt County. Crickman alleged in his petition that Florence M. East had died testate and that he had been nominated, in a will dated March 14, 1968, as executor of decedent's estate. On July 13, 1978, the court entered an order admitting the instrument to probate and issued letters testamentary to Crickman. Plaintiff, a residuary legatee under the instrument, filed a will contest in the circuit court of Piatt County on October 12, 1978. Plaintiff alleged in her complaint that Crickman had influenced decedent's actions as her farm manager and financial advisor for many years prior to the execution of this instrument. The complaint further charged that Crickman had employed Wayne L. Bickes, the attorney who drafted decedent's will, as his own attorney for many years prior to the execution of this instrument and that decedent, as a result of her age, health, and business competence, was unable to resist the combined efforts of Crickman and Bickes to influence her to create an option in favor of defendant Crickman to purchase certain farmland. In addition, the complaint charged that both Crickman and Bickes stood in a fiduciary and confidential relationship to decedent and that they had breached their duties in influencing decedent to create the option to purchase at an unconscionably low price. The complaint further charged that the acts of undue influence of Crickman and Bickes affected only that provision in the will which created the option in favor of Crickman.

The instrument which purports to be the last will and testament of decedent contains bequests to various relatives, friends and charitable institutions. The residuary clause of the instrument contains 22 separate provisions for distribution of the residue of decedent's estate. The portion of the instrument which plaintiff seeks to invalidate creates in favor of defendant Crickman an option to purchase 320 acres of farmland alleged by plaintiff to have a value of $1,280,000. The terms of the trust allow defendant Crickman to purchase 320 acres of farmland for a total purchase price of $200,000, to be paid in installments of $8,000 per year, for a period of 26 years, at an interest rate of 3% per annum. The instrument also provides that, if defendant Crickman fails to exercise the option within six months of the death of Miss East or forfeits his interest under the terms of the trust, the property is to be sold and the proceeds distributed among the residuary legatees.

The determination of whether plaintiff is an interested person under section 8-1 of our probate act and therefore eligible to contest the validity of this testamentary instrument turns on the question of whether the relief sought, a declaration of the partial invalidity of the instrument, can be granted. Plaintiff does not desire invalidation of the entire will; as a residuary legatee who is not an heir of decedent, plaintiff would gain only by invalidation of a portion of the will. The narrow issue thus presented by this appeal is whether our courts have the power to declare a testamentary instrument partially invalid under the provisions of our probate act where only part of the instrument is alleged to be the product of undue influence.

Defendant Crickman, in seeking to sustain the judgments of the circuit and appellate courts, relies principally upon the decision of this court in Snyder v. Steele (1922), 304 Ill. 387, 136 N.E. 649. He argues that our decision in Snyder stands for the proposition that section 8-3 of the Probate Act of 1975 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1977, ch. 110 1/2, par. 8-3) limits the issue in a will contest charging undue influence to the validity of the testamentary instrument in its entirety. Crickman asserts that the only issue presented by this appeal is whether Snyder should be overruled. In response to this question, Crickman contends that the construction of our probate act in Snyder, and the subsequent reenactment of substantially similar provisions by the legislature, presents us with a question left properly to legislative determination. In support of this position, Crickman relies upon the well-settled principle of statutory construction that the reenactment of a statute which has been judicially construed is an adoption of the construction by the legislature, since the legislature is presumed to know the construction given and, by reenactment, is assumed to have intended the new statute to have the same effect.

Plaintiff argues, relying principally upon the decision of this court in Wolf v. Bollinger (1872), 62 Ill. 368, that the power to determine whether the instrument produced is the will of the testator includes the power to pass upon the validity of part of the instrument as well as the whole. Plaintiff contends that our decision in Wolf, a case which construed language substantially similar to the language contained in section 8-3 of the Probate Act of 1975 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1977, ch. 110 1/2, par. 8-3) is determinative of whether our courts have the power to declare part of a testamentary instrument invalid. In support of this position, plaintiff points to the decisions of this court in which specific provisions of a will were declared invalid and the remaining portions were allowed to stand. See Beal v. Higgins (1921), 299 Ill. 229, 132 N.E. 542 (invalidation of a dispository provision under the rule against perpetuities); Wood v. Wood (1914), 263 Ill. 285, 104 N.E. 1108 (invalidation of a fraudulently inserted provision designating an individual as heir); Wombacher v. Barthelme (1902), 194 Ill. 425, 62 N.E. 800 (invalidation of a provision naming the executor because of improper insertion); Lawrence v. Smith (1896), 163 Ill. 149, 45 N.E. 259 (invalidation of a dispository provision under the rule against perpetuities).

We agree with defendant that " 'the legislature is presumed to know the construction the statute has been given, and by re-enactment, is assumed to have intended for the new statute to have the same effect.' " (Stryker v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (1978), 74 Ill.2d 507, 513, 24 Ill.Dec. 832, 834, 386 N.E.2d 36, 38, quoting People ex rel. County of Kane v. Crawford (1971), 48 Ill.2d 227, 230, 269 N.E.2d 300, 302.) We also agree that considerations of stare decisis weigh heavily in the area of statutory construction, especially where the legislature is free to change court interpretations of its legislation. In determining whether a case is binding, however, this court has the power and the duty under the doctrine of stare decisis to reexamine pertinent legal concepts. (Bradley v. Fox (1955), 7 Ill.2d 106, 111, 129 N.E.2d 699.) We agree with plaintiff that where the court has itself adopted conflicting interpretations of the same statute, the duty of the court in such a case is to clarify and resolve its previous decisions, and we should not assume that the legislature has approved an interpretation which is obviously conflicting.

In the case relied upon by Crickman, Snyder v. Steele, defendant Steele, an attorney, had drafted an instrument in which he was named executor of the estate and a legatee. Plaintiff, an heir of decedent, sought to have the will declared null and void due to the exertion of undue influence by defendant. In the first appeal in the cause, Snyder v. Steele (1919), 287 Ill. 159, 122 N.E. 520, the court set aside a verdict of the jury which sustained the validity of the will. The court held that a fiduciary relationship existed between defendant and the testator, that a presumption of undue influence existed, and that there was no evidence to rebut this presumption. In addition, the court held that the evidence did not show that the will was attested in the manner prescribed by statute, and the cause was remanded for a new trial.

Subsequent to this appeal, defendant Steele resigned as executor of the estate and renounced his legacy under the instrument. On remand, the probate court allowed Steele to testify, and the jury returned a verdict...