Opinion ID: 891577
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Participation in the Procurement

Text: {30} The district court found that Viola Varela was directly involved in the procurement of the Will and the deeds to herself. The Court of Appeals held that there was insufficient evidence to support this finding. Chapman, 2008-NMCA-108, ¶ 27, 144 N.M. 709, 191 P.3d 567. Citing Gonzales, 108 N.M. at 586, 775 P.2d at 1303, the Court of Appeals held that Siblings had to show that Viola became the beneficiary of the will by securing its legal execution. Chapman, 2008-NMCA-108, ¶ 27, 144 N.M. 709, 191 P.3d 567. In other words, the proponent's participation had to be necessary for the legal execution of the will. Id. ¶ 29. As a result, the Court refused to consider evidence of Viola's participation in creating earlier versions of the will that never took legal effect, or the extent to which she participated in non-legally required ways in the will's final execution. Id. ¶ 27. Because it was undisputed that Viola took no part in the ultimate legal execution of the will and because no evidence that Viola's actions relating to the execution of the will influenced Gregoria's stated intent[,] the Court of Appeals found insufficient evidence that Viola participated in procuring the will. Id. ¶¶ 29-30. We disagree. {31} First, the Court's definition of participation in the procurement was incorrect. In Gonzales, the case relied upon by the Court of Appeals, we simply observed that because the will proponent's signature on the will was not legally required for its execution, [i]t cannot be said that [the proponent] participated in procuring the will by securing its execution when his signature was unnecessary. 108 N.M. at 586, 775 P.2d at 1303 (emphasis added). This holding does not require that the contestant have taken a legally required role in the will's execution to have participated in its procurement; instead, it merely states the obvious: if the proponent's role was not legally required, the contestant cannot argue that the proponent participated in the procurement by securing its execution. The proponent still might have participated in the procurement in other ways. {32} Other New Mexico case law supports this interpretation. In Doughty, 117 N.M. at 290, 871 P.2d at 386, the Court of Appeals found substantial evidence to support the district court's finding of participation in the procurement relating to inter vivos transfers that effectively disinherited the decedent's daughter. The decedent had wanted to make an inter vivos gift of Chevron stock to her children, but she also wanted to receive dividends on the stock throughout her life. Id. at 286-87, 871 P.2d at 382-83. However, the decedent's daughter would only accept the gift if income taxes on the dividends would be taken from the dividends. Id. Decedent's son communicated this to the decedent, which upset her, but did not inform the daughter that the decedent was upset. Id. at 287, 871 P.2d at 383. This precipitated the decedent's inter vivos transfer of other assets to the son. Id. at 290, 871 P.2d at 386. The son further enabled the transfer of these assets by visiting the bank, instructing the bank to prepare the required documents, and delivering them to his mother at the hospital. Id. The son was not present at the signing, but the Court of Appeals nevertheless concluded that he initiated, pursued, and completed the entire process. Id. Similarly, in Hummer, 75 N.M. at 284, 404 P.2d at 117, we found evidence to support the trial court's finding of participation in the procurement where the proponent of the will, though not legally necessary for the execution of the will, id., had taken decedent to the attorney to execute it and had convinced her en route of everything it should contain. Id. at 277, 284, 404 P.2d at 112, 117. {33} With these cases in mind, we conclude that the evidence considered by the district court was relevant to the question of undue influence. Evidence was presented that about a year and a half before the will was executed, a separate and nearly identical document had been signed by Gregoria and notarized. Victoria Varela, Viola's daughter, testified that she had typed this earlier will based on Gregoria's dictation, without reference to any notes or drafts. Viola, in her testimony, adopted her daughter's version of events. However, Viola also admitted that before Victoria had typed the earlier will, Viola had purchased a will template at a stationery store and typed it up herself, creating a document nearly identical to the earlier will that Victoria claimed to have written from Gregoria's statements without reference to any notes or drafts. Despite this revelation, Viola persisted in claiming that the template was not used to create the earlier will. Moreover, Viola's and Victoria's testimony contradicted statements made by Viola elsewhere in her testimony and in her deposition that her mother had written out a rough draft which was used to type the earlier will. {34} After the earlier will was drafted, Viola took her mother to have it notarized, but failed to follow the formalities required under the Probate Code. Attorney Ruben Rodriguez testified that a year and a half later, Viola contacted him to have the earlier will check[ed] and redo[ne,] apparently specifying that the language in the earlier will should be copied exactly. Viola and Gregoria then came to Rodriguez's office on two different occasions. The first time, both Viola and Gregoria were present, and they explained again that they wanted a more professional will, but that it should contain the same language as the earlier will. Accordingly, the will as it was finally executed is largely identical to the earlier will, with the exception of the addition of a residuary clause to Viola's benefit. The second time they visited Rodriguez, Viola was asked to leave while Rodriguez confirmed that the will reflected Gregoria's intent and then properly executed it. {35} From this evidence, the finder of fact reasonably could have inferred that Viola both wrote the language that ended up in the will and also shepherded it through multiple drafts and meetings with a notary and an attorney until the will had been properly legally executed in nearly the exact form in which Viola had first drafted it. Common sense dictates that this sort of conduct could be considered a more suspicious form of participation in the procurement of a will than merely affixing a legally required signature. The district court properly considered this evidence in making its ultimate determination of whether the presumption was raised.