Case Title: In Re Estate of Millar

Citation: 185 Kan. 510, 345 P.2d 1033

Docket Number: 41,464

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1959-11-07T00:00:00Z

Document:
185 Kan. 510 (1959)
345 P.2d 1033
In the Matter of the Estate of Carrie E. Millar, Deceased.
(BILLY MILLAR KRATZER and LOIS ALLEN, Appellants,
v.
L.H. MOORE, Executor of the estate of Carrie E. Millar, deceased, Appellee.
No. 41,464

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed November 7, 1959.
C.H. Morris, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Robert F. Bailey, also of Wichita, was with him on the brief for appellants.
George Barrett, of Pratt, argued the cause, and Richard Barrett, also of Pratt, was with him on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
SCHROEDER, J.:
This is an action in which the heirs are attacking the validity of a will on the ground that the testatrix was mentally incompetent to make a will and the codicils thereto. Appeal has been duly perfected from an order of the district court upholding the admission of the will to probate and from an order overruling the appellants' motion for a new trial.
The question presented is whether the appellants were denied a fair trial, either, by the exclusion of evidence or by rejecting the testimony of a psychiatrist in finding against the appellants, which they contend was by reason of prejudicial personal beliefs and feelings of the trial judge and contrary to reliable scientific evidence.
The instrument in question purporting to be the last will and testament of Carrie E. Millar, deceased, consists of the will proper which was executed May 5, 1945, and two codicils thereto, one executed August 15, 1952, and the other executed May 23, 1957.
The appellants, Billy Millar Kratzer and Lois Allen, were the sole and only children of Cyrus Millar and Goldie Millar. Cyrus Millar was the sole and only child of Carrie E. Millar, the testatrix herein, and William (Billy) Millar, who died in 1940 leaving a sizeable estate to his widow, Carrie E. Millar, as sole beneficiary. Cyrus Millar and Goldie Millar were divorced in May, 1945, and in 1947 Cyrus died leaving a will, which was executed May 5, 1945, leaving a sizeable estate to his mother, Carrie E. Millar. The appellants herein contested their father's will, but were unsuccessful, the matter having been considered by this court in In re Estate of Millar, 167 Kan. 455, 207 P.2d 483.
Carrie E. Millar never remarried after the death of William Millar in 1940 and lived alone in the family home at Pratt, Kansas, until her death on the 15th day of September, 1957. She left an estate consisting of extensive holdings of real property, corporate stocks, bonds, notes, mortgages, cash and other personal property of the appraised value of $265,659.09.
*512 Throughout the years from 1945 until the date of her death she looked after her properties with the assistance of her attorney, George Barrett, her banker and friends. She received constant medical attention and when she signed the second codicil on May 23, 1957, she was in her eighties. Carrie E. Millar was eighty-six years of age when she died.
On the 18th day of October, 1957, the probate court of Pratt County, Kansas, entered an order admitting the last will and testament of Carrie E. Millar, deceased, to probate and declaring said last will and testament to be valid. On appeal from the above order to the district court of Pratt County, Kansas, the matter of Carrie E. Millar's mental competence was tried de novo. The appellee, L.H. Moore, executor of the estate of Carrie E. Millar, deceased, in propounding the will presented fourteen witnesses who testified as to the mental competency of the testatrix. Among these witnesses was an osteopathic physician who had practiced in Pratt County for fifty years and treated the testatrix for more than twenty-five years, two practicing physicians and general surgeons who had attended the testatrix, one having known her since 1931 and having had many contacts with her as an individual and in a professional capacity during the years, and the other having known her as a patient since May, 1952. Others included a legal secretary, a banker, an insurance broker, a graduate nurse, and neighbors from the vicinity of the Millar ranch in Kiowa County, Kansas, who had known the testatrix for many years.
The substance of the testimony given by these witnesses, if taken as true, established the requirements of mental capacity to make a valid will frequently applied by this court  that the testatrix was able to know and understand what property she had, know about her relatives and others who may be the objects of her bounty, and their condition and relation to her, and was able to direct and make disposition of her property with understanding and reason. (Hudson v. Hughan, 56 Kan. 152, 42 Pac. 701; Barnhill v. Miller, 114 Kan. 73, 217 Pac. 274; Klose v. Collins, 137 Kan. 321, 20 P.2d 494; Stayton v. Stayton, 148 Kan. 172, 81 P.2d 1; and In re Estate of Ellis, 168 Kan. 11, 210 P.2d 417.) In the opinion of these witnesses, the testatrix had full mental capacity at the time she executed her will and the codicils thereto. She was described as a strong-minded woman not easily influenced.
The appellants took the position that the decedent was greatly *513 advanced in age and infirm of mind and body and was incapable of and did not know and understand the extent and value of her property, the natural objects of her bounty and the meaning and purport of the instruments which she executed. They contended that at the time she executed the will and codicils thereto she was suffering from neuropsychiatric syndromes that gave her a sick mind and complete deterioration of mind, body and emotions; that she was influenced by untrue and imaginary beliefs and thoughts which had no basis in fact concerning her sole and only grandchildren, appellants herein, and their natural claim upon her property as natural objects of her bounty.
At this point it should be stated the testatrix left no property or money to her granddaughters, the appellants herein, who were her sole and only heirs at law. Except for a few minor bequests of money, taking the size of her estate into account, she left the home in Pratt together with the sum of $10,000 to the "Library Board of the City of Pratt, Kansas, and/or the City of Pratt, Kansas," with directions that the structure be known as "the William C. Millar Memorial," and the remainder of her estate in trust for the benefit of the "Library Board of the City of Pratt, Kansas and/or the City of Pratt, Kansas," as a further contribution to the maintenance of the public library of the City of Pratt, Kansas.
The appellants' evidence as to incompetency of the deceased to make the will and respective codicils in question was the opinion testimony of an experienced psychiatrist and neurologist, Dr. Frank H. Harris, M.D., of Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Harris had never seen the testatrix during her lifetime and was presented as a qualified and experienced psychiatrist and neurologist, who had carried on an extensive practice in determining within reasonable medical certainty the competency or incompetency of a person after death, without having previously treated or observed such person prior to death. The appellants' theory of the case was that "a competent medical trained practitioner in the field of psychiatry can determine the mental competency or incompetency of an individual after death when they have not had occasion to treat or see the person prior to death. And that the diagnostic aids of doing that is to obtain information of all the things in the background, the life and history of the person that they are trying to determine competency after death."
*514 Pursuant to this theory the appellants sought to introduce in evidence before the trial court the life history of the testatrix.
The first question presented by the appellants is that the trial court excluded medical evidence which denied the appellants a fair trial.
It would be impossible to disclose just what testimony the trial court did exclude without incorporating verbatim practically the entire abstract of the testimony in this case. Suffice it to say, the appellants assigned the exclusion of evidence as one of their grounds in the motion for a new trial, however, at the hearing on the motion for a new trial they did not produce the evidence which they contend was excluded improperly. This question is therefore not here for review. (G.S. 1949, 60-3004.) It has been repeatedly held that where the ground of the motion for a new trial is error in the exclusion of evidence, the excluded evidence must be produced at the hearing of the motion for a new trial. (Mohr v. Women's Benefit Ass'n., 134 Kan. 311, 5 P.2d 789, and cases cited under the section of the foregoing statute.) In passing it may be said the appellants sought to rehash the evidence of the entire divorce proceedings between Cyrus and his wife and the court proceedings concerning the contest of Cyrus' will, both of which the trial court excluded. It has been held that a wide range of testimony is allowed in cases involving mental capacity, and, as a general rule, any and all conduct of the one whose sanity is in question is admissible in evidence. Kempf v. Koppa, 74 Kan. 153, 85 Pac. 806.) Whether the excluded evidence was material is not shown by the record, it not having been produced at the hearing of the motion for a new trial.
Appellants contend the record strongly indicates the trial court at no time fully comprehended appellants' theory of the decedent's inability to make a valid will because of a special mental condition or disease, classified as a neuropsychiatric syndrome and paranoid personality. This leads to the next question presented.
After all of the testimony concerning the history of the testatrix' life was in, including the cross examination of appellee's witnesses and the testimony given by the appellants and various witnesses called on their behalf, counsel for the appellants qualified Dr. Harris as a specialist in psychiatry and neurology and then put a hypothetical question to him consisting of approximately twenty-seven hundred words. This question attempted to review the history of the testatrix' life as disclosed by the evidence before the trial court. *515 Dr. Harris, after stating that he had formulated an opinion concerning the testatrix' mental capacity, answered as follows:
Dr. Harris then further testified that in his opinion the testatrix had knowledge and understanding of what properties she had; that she knew the granddaughters, appellants herein, were the natural objects of her bounty but that she was unable to make a disposition of her property by will with understanding and reasoning because her insight and her judgment at the time she executed the various instruments in question and for quite a long time had been impaired by reason of her paranoid personality. He further related that it was possible for him to reach a conclusion such as the opinion stated in his testimony, upon the evidence presented to him in the hypothetical question, without treating or seeing the patient ahead of time.
Upon cross examination Dr. Harris was asked to state upon what evidence he determined that the testatrix rejected her son, Cyrus. He answered by saying that the testatrix did not want the son to get married because she wanted to possess him. He then went beyond the record to state that Cyrus had several other girl *516 friends but the testatrix stopped their marriage. He related that he obtained this information from some people whom he contacted and some evidence he had in the office, and not from the courtroom. Counsel for the appellee moved to strike the doctor's testimony, whereupon Dr. Harris, pursuant to interrogation by counsel for the appellants, disclosed that no other extraneous evidence, beyond what he stated, was considered in his opinion and that even excluding such evidence his opinion would be the same. The trial court thus permitted his testimony to stand.
The trial court found that the decedent, Carrie E. Millar, at the time she made her will and the two codicils thereto, "was fully competent and mentally alert enough to know the property which she owned, the objects of her bounty, and be able to make a reasonable, sensible disposition of it" and by his ruling affirmed the order of the probate court admitting the will and the two codicils thereto to probate.
The second question presented by the appellants' brief is: "Were the findings of fact and judgment of the trial court rendered under the influence of prejudicial personal beliefs and feelings of the court and contrary to reliable scientific evidence so as to deny to the appellants a fair trial?"
At the conclusion of the trial the judge made rather extensive remarks consisting of his findings and judgment. Among these remarks he said:
Appellants conclude from the foregoing remarks that the trial judge was prejudiced, or at least sufficiently prejudiced so as to deny them a fair and impartial trial. It is clear that a court must be fair and impartial when the court is trying a fact case without a jury. (Harrison v. Harrison, 48 Kan. 443, 29 Pac. 572.)
The law is settled in this jurisdiction that nonexpert testimony is competent on the question of mental capacity, and the trier of the facts is not bound to adopt the views and opinions of a physician, qualified as an expert in psychiatry and neurology, to the exclusion of other nonexpert testimony. (Mingle v. Hubbard, 131 Kan. 844, 293 Pac. 513; and In re Estate of Millar, 167 Kan. 455, 207 P.2d 483.) Furthermore, the opinions of medical men, who have only normal school training in psychiatry without being specialists in *517 the field, are admissible in evidence as to the mental capacity of a person at a particular time, because they are supposed to have become, by study and experience, familiar with symptoms of mental disease, and therefore qualified to assist the court or jury in reaching a correct conclusion. Such opinions of medical doctors may be based upon facts within their personal knowledge, gained from actual examination or observation, as well as upon a hypothetical case disclosed by the testimony of others. (Stayton v. Stayton, supra.) While the physicians in the instant case who attended the testatrix during her lifetime and testified for the appellee were not specialized in psychiatry and neurology, as was Dr. Harris, they were none the less in the category of expert witnesses.
The appellants contend the remarks of the trial judge indicate that the trial judge decided the case upon his own meager knowledge of psychiatry, and disregarded entirely the testimony of Dr. Harris, thereby denying them a fair and impartial trial.
While the trier of the facts might under some circumstances reject expert testimony absolutely, depending upon the circumstances, and give it no weight because it is believed to be least worthy of credit, it does not follow that such expert testimony can be disregarded. (Forsyth v. Church, 141 Kan. 687, 42 P.2d 975.)
In our opinion the above quoted remarks of the trial judge appear to be relatively insignificant when considered in the light of other remarks made in connection therewith. Pertinent portions of the statement made by the trial judge are:
No doubt some of the remarks of the trial judge were prompted by testimony elicited from Dr. Harris on cross examination by counsel for the appellee as follows:
"A. Yes, you expect to depend on them.
"A. Yes."
The remarks of the trial judge plainly indicate that the testimony of Dr. Harris was not disregarded. It was rejected by the trial judge after having fully considered all the evidence. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the trial court did not give the testimony of Dr. Harris the consideration to which it was entitled. It should not have been so considered as to nullify all nonexpert testimony in conflict with it (In re Estate of Millar, supra), nor should it have been so considered as to nullify the expert testimony of medical doctors who attended the testatrix in her lifetime even though they were not specialized in psychiatry and neurology.
Our decision is therefore controlled by the rule stated in Bradley v. Hill, 141 Kan. 602, 42 P.2d 580. Where the trial court, in an action to set aside a will (including the codicils thereto) because of *520 the testamentary incapacity of the testatrix, holds under conflicting testimony that the testatrix was mentally competent to make the will, and such finding is sustained by substantial evidence, the finding is conclusive on appeal.
The value of property consists largely in the right to dispose of it as the owner desires, and this power of disposal, either by deed or by will, is not to be interfered with so long as the requisite mental capacity exists. (Cole v. Drum, 109 Kan. 148, 197 Pac. 1105, and cases cited therein.) The right to make a will includes the right to make it according to the testatrix' own desires, subject only to the statutory restrictions. It is no condition of this right that the will shall please a jury, or a court, or the testatrix' relatives, or anyone else. If the will was properly executed, and the testatrix was of competent sanity, and no undue influence has been established, it is the testatrix' will, and no tribunal is appointed on earth to inquire whether it ought to have been her will. (Ginter v. Ginter, 79 Kan. 721, 101 Pac. 634.)
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.