Opinion ID: 2119172
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: susceptibility to influence

Text: First, contestants failed to establish that decedent was a person susceptible to such influence. To the contrary, the record shows that during the time period in which the will was executed decedent was, according to a next-door neighbor who spoke to decedent nearly every day, a man aware of what was going on about him, with definite opinions about farming, politics, and farm markets. Another witness, for whom Mary Tesch babysat, testified that she was aware that her infant was sometimes left in decedent's care. She was not bothered about this because she found decedent to be a fine and friendly and relatively alert old man. It was testified by Carl Tesch that decedent was very sharp at and assisted him with algebra and geometry. The attorneys who witnessed the execution of the will testified that decedent met all of the legal requirements for a testator, including not acting under menace, duress, undue influence, or misrepresentation. In addition, the banker who assisted decedent in changing the title to his government bonds testified on cross-examination that decedent was adamant about the disposition of his property and was specific about which bonds he wished changed and which he did not. This evidence does not present a dark picture of coercion, threat, and intimidation such as is found in the Metz case, supra.