Opinion ID: 2207921
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of evidence on issue of testamentary capacity.

Text: At the close of plaintiff's case, appellants moved for a directed verdict, claiming the evidence was insufficient to generate a jury question on Patricia's testamentary capacity. We therefore turn to a review of the evidence, bearing in mind our duty to review the record in the light most favorable to the contestant. Olsen, 245 Iowa at 413, 60 N.W.2d at 836. Plaintiff's evidence of Patricia's testamentary incapacity centered on the testimony of a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Vernon Varner. Employing a methodology routinely used in the diagnosis of his patients, Dr. Varner compiled and reviewed extensive data concerning Patricia's family and medical history dating from adolescence to the time just preceding her death. His sources of information included family members, neighbors, acquaintances, medical records and attending physicians. Preliminarily, we note that both Ensign and Christianson assert on appeal that the court erred in permitting Dr. Varner to testify, inasmuch as his testimony was based in large part on the hearsay statements and opinions of others. Appellants' objection to Dr. Varner's testimony was addressed and overruled by pretrial motion under Iowa Rule of Evidence 104(a). At trial, his testimony came in without further objection. However, reversible error cannot be predicated on an order overruling a motion in limine where, as here, the trial judge overruled the motion without directly ruling on the admissibility of the evidence. Compare State v. Judkins, 242 N.W.2d 266, 269 (Iowa 1976) with State v. O'Connell, 275 N.W.2d 197, 202 (Iowa 1979). Record of the objection must be made during trial when the evidence is offered. Judkins, 242 N.W.2d at 269. We therefore turn to the merits of the expert testimony. The doctor offered a number of opinions crucial to plaintiff's proof of Patricia's testamentary capacity. First, he testified that on September 29, 1980, Patricia suffered from schizophrenia, paranoid sub-type, a chronic mental illness evident in her medical records since 1955. The doctor further testified from a review of Patricia's psychiatric history that, despite scattered periods of lucidity, she was never free from the effects of the illness from its onset to the time of her death. Secondly, a significant feature of Patricia's illness was a fixed, false belief that her father was an alcoholic who emotionally abused her as a child and ultimately ruined her life. From his extensive interviews with persons acquainted with Patricia and her father for at least thirty years, Dr. Varner could find no rational basis for such belief. Patricia's delusion was described by the doctor as typical of schizophrenic paranoid sub-type; in his words, it is a product of the brain disease. This led the doctor to conclude that on September 29, 1980, Patricia did not have the capacity to recall the natural objects of her bounty. [1] Third, in response to a question whether Patricia knew the disposition she desired to make of her property, Dr. Varner described another characteristic of Patricia's illness, evident in her history: the inability to make decisions. This, in his opinion, would naturally lead her to be easily influenced by one who would set out to do so. In other words, her indecisive behavior was the product of delusions and influenceability tied together. We need not lengthen this opinion by recounting the further evidence offered by Dr. Varner and other witnesses in support of plaintiff's claim that Patricia lacked testamentary capacity when she executed her 1980 will. Dr. Varner's testimony alone generated a jury question on each of the essential elements on which such capacity must be measured. See In re Will of Grahlman, 248 Iowa at 539, 81 N.W.2d at 676. Where, in a will contest such as this, there is testimony, which if believed, would support a finding of an unsound mind, it is a question for the jury. In re Estate of Guinn, 242 Iowa 542, 545, 47 N.W.2d 243, 244 (1951). The district court properly overruled appellants' motions for directed verdict on this issue.