Opinion ID: 2207921
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sufficiency of the evidence on Ensign's undue influence.

Text: Ensign contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion for directed verdict at the close of plaintiff's case. He argues that the evidence was insufficient to show that he influenced Patricia in any way in connection with the execution of her 1980 will. While we agree that there is no evidence of direct involvement by Ensign in Patricia's last will, we find no error in the trial court's conclusion that a reasonable fact finder could infer from all the evidence presented that Ensign proceeded on a course of conduct designed to falsely enhance his standing in her eyes and thereby influence her in the disposition of her property. We have already recounted the questionable practice employed by Ensign within a month after Patricia's 1976 hospitalization for mental illness, whereby he arranged to secure 20% of her estate without her apparent knowledge or consent. Two months later, Ensign's son and law partner inexplicably transferred all of Patricia's farmland to the conservator with whom Ensign had this side agreement. As plaintiff aptly observes, instead of quietly and professionally setting about to right a wrong which should have been an embarrassment to himself and his law firm, Ensign elected to sue the Bilyieu heirs and posture himself in Patricia's eyes as the one who protected her fortune by saving the family farm. Apparently the charade worked, for six days after the deed was set aside, Patricia signed a will leaving all of her property to Floyd Ensign. The record is silent as to what role, if any, Ensign played in Patricia's life in the intervening year before she executed the contested will that reduced his share to one-fourth. Nevertheless, given Patricia's mental instability throughout this period, and the suspicion generated by a bequest to one who stands in a fiduciary relationship to the testator, we think the circumstantial evidence introduced by plaintiff clearly generated a jury question on the cause and effect elements of Ensign's alleged undue influence.