Court Opinion

ID: 9845844
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:29:27.232199+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:23.620696
License: Public Domain

Almand, Justice,
dissenting. I dissent from the ruling that the evidence is sufficient to have authorized a finding by the jury that the testatrix did not have sufficient mental capacity to execute the will, and from the judgment of affirmance. The caveatrix assumed the burden of proving lack of testamentary capacity. The testimony of the subscribing witnesses and others *219who gave their opinion as to the mental condition of the testatrix on the day the will was executed, that she did have mental capacity to execute the will, was not overcome by the non-expert witnesses testifying on behalf of the caveatrix, whose opinions were based upon facts from which no legal conclusion could be drawn that the testatrix did not have mental capacity to execute the will. All that their testimony amounted to was that the testatrix, after her stroke, could not recall names of persons or places, and that she did not have the same disposition that she had before the stroke. Such evidence was insufficient to overcome the positive testimony of the witnesses who saw and observed her at the moment the will was executed.
It is true that cases of this character must stand or fall on their own facts, and previous decisions dealing with the sufficiency or insufficiency of evidence are of little value; but reference to these decisions shows that this court has set aside verdicts, finding in favor of caveats on the ground of mental incapacity, which were based upon evidence stronger than that in the instant case. Peavey v. Crawford, 182 Ga. 782 (187 S. E. 13, 107 A. L. R. 828); Martin v. Martin, 185 Ga. 349, 353 (195 S. E. 159); Brumbelow v. Hopkins, 197 Ga. 247 (29 S. E. 2d, 42). The solemn and sacred right of one while in life to dispose of her own property by will should not be nullified after her death upon such weak and inconclusive evidence as appears in this case.