Opinion ID: 2338603
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. Ruslander's interview with the testatrix.

Text: S. Leo Ruslander, Esq., an esteemed and respected member of the bar, had long been an intimate friend of the testatrix and her husband. He was for many years associated in the office of A. Leo Weil, Esq., where most of the testatrix's former wills had been written. In 1930, four months after her son's marriage, she had, in the will then made, given as much as one-half of her estate to her son for life and at his death to his children if any, but in subsequent wills she had left only one-third of her estate to her son and at his death to his children, and Herbert had frequently protested that his family should receive one-half of the estate the same as his sister, Mrs. May. About ten days after his death, on January 15, 1946, Mr. Ruslander paid the testatrix a condolence visit, and she apparently poured out her heart to him. He had prepared for her, and was of course familiar with, her last previous will in 1936. She expressed to him a feeling of regret that she had provided therein only a third instead of an equal half of her estate for Herbert and his children, said she was sorry she had not changed her will during his lifetime in accordance with his request, and told him she intended to do something about it now that he was dead. So far, therefore, from any wholly incredible intention on her part to cut out Herbert's children now of all times when they had lost their father, she expressed to this intimate confidant her intention to give them even more than the one-third of her estate provided in her previous wills. And yet we are asked to believe that, of her own free volition, only five days later, on January 20 or within a day or two thereafter, in an interview between her and her daughter and son-in-law, without coercion, persuasion or even so much as a suggestion on their part, she not only gave instructions for the preparation of a new will which would not increase the legacy to Herbert's children of one-third of the estate, but, on the contrary, would take even that share away and disinherit them altogether! There is only one possible clue to this extraordinary situation. It is that the testatrix was subjected to a wholly ruthless badgering and control exercised upon her weakened body and sorely distressed mind, as will hereafter appear.