Opinion ID: 1844540
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Substantive Facts Pertinent to the Issues of Testamentary Capacity and Undue Influence

Text: An analysis of the second and third issues is necessarily fact intensive. Because, in reviewing the decision of the Court of Civil Appeals on a trial court ruling on a motion for JML, we must accept the tendencies of the evidence most favorable to the nonmovants, the contestants, Manning, supra, Washington, supra, and Palm Harbor Homes, supra, and must resolve all reasonable factual doubts in favor of the nonmovant, Willis, supra, we will so discuss the evidence and the facts. The putative testatrix of the second will was Bernice H. Grimes. The proponents are Bernice's sister Ruth Morrow and Ruth's daughter Pam Morrow. The four contestants are blood nieces and a blood nephew of Bernice's late husband John Grimes. The four contestants are related to Bernice only by her marriage to John, the contestants' uncle. In 1994 Bernice executed a will which would have left substantial property to the contestants, although more to the proponents, if Bernice's husband John, then living, were to predecease her. In May 1996 John died of cancer, which had caused him lingering agony, which, in turn, had caused Bernice acute grief. At John's death, Bernice inherited 17 certificates of deposit (CDs) jointly titled in the names of John and Bernice, with right of survivorship. Beginning within a month after John's death and continuing until Bernice's death in 1998, as each CD was renewed at maturity, the proponents' names, along with Bernice's name, appeared on each CD as joint owners with right of survivorship. These CDs totaled $215,743.95 in value, which the proponents owned jointly after Bernice's death. After John's death, proponent Pamela opened a joint checking account in the names of Bernice, Pamela, and Ruth, with right of survivorship, and deposited only Bernice's money in the account. Statements for this joint checking account were mailed only to proponent Ruth's home address. Before John's death, the proponents had already acquired joint ownership, with survivorship, of, and check-writing authority on, one of Bernice's then-existing checking accounts, which, at Bernice's death, was worth $13,941, then owned jointly by the proponents. Likewise, before John's death, both proponents had already acquired a key and access to Bernice's safe deposit box, even though, in the will-contest litigation, Ruth denied that she had such access. In December 1996 Bernice began experiencing pain in her side. On December 30, 1996, she visited Dr. William Reynolds, whom the proponents had recommended. Dr. Reynolds prescribed Lortab, consisting of hydrocodone, a synthetic morphine-like narcotic, for Bernice's pain and referred Bernice to a specialist for diagnosis. That evening, after his regular working hours, Dr. Reynolds called Bernice at home because he was so worried about her pain and her mental state. Four days later, on January 3, 1997, Bernice returned to Dr. Reynolds, who told her she was dying of the same sort of cancer that had killed her husband. On this visit, Dr. Reynolds prescribed more Lortab in a greater dosage and advised Bernice that [her] family situation needs to be put in order. On January 20, 1997, Dr. Reynolds prescribed still more Lortab requested by Bernice. On January 15, 1997, Bernice purported to execute a second will, the one at issue in this case, at the office of Jackson W. Stokes, the lawyer who had drafted this putative second will, not the same lawyer who had drafted Bernice's first will in 1994. The January 15, 1997 will, Bernice's putative second will, in the words of the Court of Civil Appeals, practically disinherited all of the contestants and left almost all her estate to the proponents. Morrow, 873 So.2d at 1135. The proponent Pamela had recommended Mr. Stokes to Bernice for this putative second will. During the weeks preceding January 15, 1997, Bernice had been dependent on the proponents to drive her wherever she needed to go. Even though, during the will-contest litigation, the proponents denied even knowing about the second will until months after Bernice's death, proponent Ruth told one of the contestants, on the day after Bernice's funeral, that the proponents could take whatever they wanted from Bernice's house because the proponents were inheriting all of it. Beginning when Bernice started to take Lortab and continuing after she purported to execute the second will, she was always asleep or sleepy. Dr. Reynolds testified that Lortab alters your mind ...[,] affects your thinking, can make you nauseous, can make you generally poor in health, can cause problems to interfere with your ability to think clearly, and makes a person sedated and confused. Dr. Reynolds testified further that, because of the sedating effect of Lortab, a physician who prescribes Lortab tells a patient don't you drive, don't you get on a forklift, don't you go up on heights. (Emphasis added.) Dr. Reynolds testified that Bernice's pain and her medication affected her mental state, her mental ability to be cognitive and clear. Kathy M. Bozeman, a registered nurse, testified that she was familiar with the drug Lortab and its effects. She testified that Lortab affects a person's central nervous system, the system that makes you drowsy and changes your moods. [W]hen someone has cancer, [the doctors] start [him or her] with a low level of pain medicine ... [a]nd then [he or she] graduate[s] up to higher, more strong medicine... because [his or her] body ... adjust[s] to that first [dosage] in a month or so. Bozeman testified that Lortab normally affects a person's mindthat Lortab can cause a patient to lose the ability to concentrate or to lose the ability to know what he or she is doing. Bozeman stated that, if, during the first month Bernice was taking Lortab, she was sleeping, staying asleep, was always drowsy, and not aware as she used to be, Bernice's condition was consistent with the side effects of Lortab. She stated that, assuming Dr. Reynolds saw Bernice on January 3, 1997 and he told her that she had the same kind of cancer that [killed] her husband, Bernice's cancer would [have been] difficult and emotional news for Bernice. Bozeman stated that, if Bernice on January 15, 1997, signed a will and was taking Lortab, she would be doing so with the propensity of that medication affecting her. The evidence tended to prove that proponent Ruth visited Bernice at her home daily from the time she started to take Lortab through the date she purported to execute the putative second will. The record contains evidence that, on several occasions during this period, proponent Ruth denied others access to Bernice.