Opinion ID: 2297488
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: directed verdicts as to undue influence and fraud

Text: Three issues were sent by the orphans' court to the law court for trial  undue influence, testamentary capacity and fraud. The trial court directed the jury to so answer the issues of undue influence and fraud as to sustain the will. The issue as to testamentary capacity was not raised in this Court, and the record does not disclose how it was disposed of. None of the cases cited by the caveator in her brief or in the oral argument is authority for shifting the burden of proof from the caveator to the caveatee. We think it is clear the trial court did not err when it refused to submit the charges of undue influence and fraud to the jury for the simple reason, as the trial court pointed out, there was no evidence to support either charge. Neither a conjecture nor a suspicious circumstance, or even an influence which does not motivate the execution of a will, is sufficient to submit the question of undue influence to a jury. Donnelly v. Donnelly, 156 Md. 81, 83, 143 A. 648 (1928). Moreover, the burden of proof is always on the caveator. Woodruff v. Linthicum, 158 Md. 603, 608, 149 A. 454 (1930). And, as with undue influence, the burden of proving fraud is also upon the caveator. Since she offered no evidence of fraud the caveatee was entitled to a verdict. Griffith v. Diffendeffer, 50 Md. 466, 482 (1879). Whether or not there was any evidence of undue influence or of fraud were questions for the court to decide. See Smith v. Diggs, 128 Md. 394, 396, 97 A. 712 (1916). Since the record does not disclose reversible error as to any of the questions raised, the rulings of the trial court must be affirmed. Rulings affirmed, the appellant to pay the costs. PRESCOTT, J., concurs in the result.