Opinion ID: 2338603
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: What possible reason could the testatrix have had for disinheriting the two beloved children of her deceased son in favor of the children of her daughter?

Text: This question is the one which naturally is the first to arise in the consideration of this case. What possible reason? Ever since their birth the testatrix had been devoted to these two grandchildren. One of them was named after her. They visited her frequently. She was proud of them. After her son's death she expressed herself as being worried what would become of them. She manifested at all times profound interest in their schooling, their clothing, and their social lives. She gave them gifts from time to time and on one occasion gave an automobile (over the strenuous opposition of Mrs. May) to one of them. When they came to see her she hugged them. All the testimony is to the effect that she idolized them. Why did she disinherit these two young girls in favor of the adult May children? Mr. May, the lawyer son-in-law, who undertook to advise her in regard to her will and actually drafted it, thought it advisable to write into the will of his own accord, and not at the instigation or instruction of the testatrix herself, an alleged reason. It is no wonder that he thought this advisable for appearance sake, since he was acting as lawyer-scrivener of a will in which, of an estate of the value of approximately $600,000, two-thirds was being bequeathed to his wife, with a contingent reversion to himself, and the remaining one-third to his children, and with the two children, Stephanie and Ann, standing in the same relation to the testatrix as his own children completely disinherited, and with his wife named as sole executrix. Mr. May, as will later further appear, was extremely conscious of the fact, and disquieted by it, that his conduct and that of his wife were such as were bound to give rise to the charge of undue influence. But, ironically enough, the reason which Mr. May thus wrote into the will in an attempt to explain such an obviously peculiar action on the part of the testatrix was transparently false and even ridiculous. What Mr. May wrote was as follows: I having heretofore made substantial gifts to Stephanie Frank and Ann Frank, children of my deceased son, Herbert I. Frank, and being satisfied they will also be assured of ample funds from the estate of my deceased husband, Abraham Frank, I therefore give, devise and bequeath all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate etc. (to the May family). But apart from the fact that the testatrix, well knowing, of course, of what Stephanie and Ann were thus assured, had nevertheless in all the wills she had previously written provided in none of them for less than one-third of her estate to go to her son and then to his children,  apart, I say, from that fact, the May children had received at least as much as these two children as gifts from the testatrix during her lifetime, and the May family shared equally in the Abraham Frank Estate. Indeed, without burdening this opinion with the detailed figures, the fact is that, of the moneys descending from the testatrix (if her present will is sustained) and from her deceased husband, the May children will ultimately acquire and succeed to the sum of approximately $1,750,000; the two children of Herbert, on the other hand, will ultimately acquire, of all the moneys similarly descending from the testatrix and her husband, a maximum amount of approximately $880,000. It is needless, therefore, to point out the absurdity  not to say effrontery,  of the attempt to give such an obviously sham justification for testatrix's leaving the one-third portion of her estate to her daughter's children (after having given their mother the other two-thirds), and nothing to her son's children, on the ground that the latter were amply provided for, notwithstanding the fact that the May children, to whom the one-third of the estate was being given, were twice as well amply provided for! And Mr. May in face of that same fact, had the boldness to testify that the testatrix told him, as an explanation of her action, that I think the children (Herbert's children) are well enough taken care of or will be and I see no reason why your family should not be just as well taken care of.! Extending throughout the testimony of Mr. and Mrs. May there is an attempt to set up another alleged reason why the testatrix disinherited her deceased son's children, that reason being that she did not want her daughter-in-law Rose to get any of her money. This purported justification for the disinheritance is quite as puerile and obviously false as the other one. It is probably quite true that originally the testatrix looked with disfavor upon the marriage of her son who had remained a bachelor and lived with her until his middle life, but her feeling was against his marrying at all, as is perhaps not unnatural with mothers under such circumstances, and was not directed in any way against the woman he had selected to be his wife. As a matter of fact the testatrix had bought for the married couple a house costing at least $26,000 as a wedding present, and subsequently she gave Rose from time to time gifts aggregating $30,000. The relationship between mother and daughter-in-law was described by all the witnesses who either lived as intimates in the testatrix's household or attended her in her illnesses, as most friendly and affectionate. It was not the testatrix but Mrs. May herself who had animosity against Rose,  an animosity so great that she even tried to prevent Rose from visiting the testatrix (as Rose did nearly every day) whenever the latter was a patient in the hospitals. It was testified that the testatrix phoned to Rose every morning, and on one occasion she expressly said that while she did not approve of the marriage at the time, Rose had turned out to be a wonderful wife and a wonderful mother. Even the trial judge made a finding to the effect that the testatrix had accepted Rose Buck as her daughter-in-law and that a warm, friendly, and perhaps affectionate relationship had grown up between them. But what is of far greater importance is the fact that the testatrix was not obliged, even if she did desire to prevent Rose from getting any of her money, to disinherit her son's children. Certainly even a first-year law student could have advised the testatrix that she could make a bequest to a trustee to pay them the income for their lives and, at their death, the principal to their issue or to any other persons she might choose to designate, and without therefore the slightest possibility of Rose sharing in such a legacy. But, as we shall see later, neither Mr. May nor Mr. Ittel did so advise her, the former because he obviously did not want her to have such information, and the latter because it was not his duty nor his function to do so. Having thus shown the utter futility of Mr. May's attempt to advance reasons for the testatrix's disinheritance of Herbert's children, and that in fact no such reasons could possibly have existed, the question accordingly persists: Why did she do it? What was the pressure exerted upon her that caused her to make such an inexplicable departure from all of her previous wills? But before referring to the testimony that completely answers that question attention is directed to the evidence concerning an occurrence that would seem almost as though providentially designed to point the way to the truth in this case.