Opinion ID: 2338603
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Mrs. May's domination of her mother and overpowering of her will.

Text: It is necessary in a court of justice to state and review the facts, unpleasant as they may be. Ten witnesses, each and every one of them wholly disinterested and consisting of those who were nearest in the day-by-day life of the testatrix,  her domestic servants, her chauffeur, the nurses who attended her in her illnesses, her physician,  all testified to the coercive influence which Mrs. May exerted upon her mother, not through the medium of ordinary reasoning and persuasion but by the use of abusive language, threats and intimidation, whereby she deprived her not only of her free agency in the general conduct of her affairs, but also ultimately in the writing of her will. As against these witnesses, the Mays did not produce a single person who had any sustained relations whatever with the testatrix,  not one of her relatives, friends or close acquaintances. The servants, the chauffeur, the nurses, all testified to conduct on the part of Mrs. May in her interviews with her mother consisting of outbursts of temper, scorn and vilification, thereby creating an emotional, mental and physical strain beyond the testatrix's endurance and such that after these exhausting sessions she would sob and be so prostrated that her physician was forced to warn Mrs. May against subjecting her mother to these altercations. Mrs. Byrd, the testatrix's personal maid, testified that Mrs. May called her mother a damned old fool even at the moment when they were putting her on a stretcher to take her to the hospital, that after Mrs. May's visits the testatrix would be nervous and slump in her chair as if she would just as soon die as live, and would cry for days, and that all the arguments that occasioned this condition were about testatrix's money, money, money. Mrs. Tucker, a nurse, testified that there was always loud talk and berating of her mother by Mrs. May, and that the night after the very session which occurred sometime between January 20th and 25th at which the alleged instructions in regard to the will were given, the testatrix was deeply agitated, depressed and crying. Mrs. Maloney, another nurse, testified that the testatrix said to her, Oh, Mrs. Maloney, if Florence would only leave me alone. Miss Johnson, a nurse, testified that Mrs. May's visits left her mother crying, weak, upset and exhausted, and that it would take two or three days for her to recuperate. She described how, against the testatrix's protestations, Mrs. May insisted on getting from her a power of attorney on a morning when, in the hospital, she was a very sick woman, violently vomiting, tired, sad, discouraged and weepy. Mrs. Carney, a beautician, who knew the testatrix intimately for twelve years, testified that she told her that She (Mrs. May) is my own daughter but I hate the way she takes charge of things and takes possession. Miss Labuda, a nurse, testified that there were repeated arguments in which Mrs. May called her mother a fool, indulged in curses, and left the testatrix upset, crying and even vomiting. Robinson, the chauffeur, testified to noisy, boisterous arguments between Mrs. May and the testatrix about money matters. So much of their relationship in general. It is somewhat significant that in the very face of approaching death, the testatrix was so fearful of Mrs. May's hostility to Herbert's children and so mindful of her continued efforts to prevent them from receiving any of her money, that she secretly telephoned to the assistant Vice-President of the Mellon Bank in order to ascertain whether she could give them checks which would be honored after her death. In her weakened physical condition and depressed state of mind the testatrix could not resist the importunities and domination exercised upon her by Mrs. May.