HAMMETT v. REYNOLDS., 243 Ga. 669, 256 S.E.2.d 354 (1979)

Supreme Court of Georgia

Status: ARGUED

Docket Number: 34458

Parts: HILL, Justice.

Linked as:

Summary

Judgment reversed. All the Justices concur.

Summary

Judgment reversed. All the Justices concur.

Text

Jones, Cork, Miller & Benton, Wallace Miller, Jr., Hutcheson & Kilpatrick, Lee Hutcheson, for appellant.

Clarice Huie Reynolds named her nephew Manley Huie Hammett as executor in her will, executed February 14, 1975. The 1975 will was substantially the same as a previous will executed in 1973. In both she left her husband, William H. Reynolds, $5,000 in cash and all of her household furniture for as long as he lived in their home; made a number of specific bequests of jewelry and cash in sums of $5,000 and $10,000 to various relatives, a godchild, a former pastor's son, and several charitable organizations; [1] and devised the rest, remainder and residue of her estate to her nephew Hammett. Testatrix died in March, 1977.

Hammett offered his aunt's 1975 will for probate in solemn form in the Probate Court of Clayton County, Georgia. The widower filed a caveat to his wife's will on the grounds of mental incapacity, undue influence, mistake of fact as to the conduct of her sole heir at law, and monomania as to the caveator. The probate judge found against the caveator and ordered that letters testamentary issue to the nephew. The widower then appealed to the superior court.

The nephew proved that the will was freely and voluntarily executed by the testatrix with the formalities required by law and that at the time she apparently had sufficient mental capacity to make a will.

The widower offered evidence showing that his deceased wife mistakenly believed that he had had affairs with other women. He contends that this belief constituted monomania and mistake of fact as to the conduct of an heir at law. No evidence of lack of mental capacity to make a will or of undue influence was introduced. The jury was charged as to the contentions of the parties; as to the burden of proof on the propounder; as to the meaning of testamentary capacity, monomania, and mistake of fact; that the propounder could not prevail if the will were not signed, attested, published and declared according to law; and that the jury should find in favor of that party the jury concluded should prevail. The jury was not instructed that the burden of proof of monomania or mistake of fact was on the caveator. The jury found in favor of the caveator. The propounder moved for a new trial, which motion was overruled, and he appeals.

1. In Irvin v. Askew, 241 Ga. 565, 566 (246 SE2d 682) (1978), quoting 1 Redfearn, Wills and Administration in Georgia 42 (3d Ed. 1965), this court described monomania as follows: "Monomania means a mental disease, not merely the unreasonable conduct of a sane person. Monomania is partial insanity; . . . The monomaniac is subject to hallucinations and insane delusions as to one or a few subjects and yet is perfectly rational as to others; . . . Monomania is a diseased condition of the mind and is distinguished from ill will, bad judgment, animosity, prejudice, erroneous conclusions from facts, illogical views, and other conditions of mind which can be co-existent with sanity . . ." (Emphasis supplied and deleted.) In Whitfield v. Pitts, 241 Ga. 577 (247 SE2d 73) (1978); Irvin v. Askew, supra. In fact, the only ground of the caveat arguably supported by evidence was mistake of fact as to the conduct of the widower. In this connection it should be noted that a will can be set aside for mistake of fact arising from ignorance, but not from an error in judgment after an investigation or after wilful failure to investigate. Young v. Mallory, 222 Ga. 70 (4) (148 SE2d 382) (1966). Because the widower's testimony as to his involvement as her attorney was both irrelevant and prejudicial in this particular case, the failure to sustain that objection requires reversal. On the other hand, the fact that the widower paid the taxes on the property in question, like evidence as to the source of the property, is admissible to show the reasonableness or unreasonableness of the testatrix' disposition of it. Murphy v. Murphy, supra.

3. The nephew also enumerates as error the trial court's granting of the widower's motion in limine, on which the court ruled that the nephew's attorney could not, in his opening statement, refer to the fact that the probate court had found the will to be valid. Without approving the sixth (6th) headnote in Baucum v. Harper, 176 Ga. 296 (6) (168 SE 27) (1933), regarding the charge of the court, we find no error in the ruling made as to the opening statement of counsel.

4. The remaining enumerations of error are directed to evidentiary matters which are not likely to reoccur upon retrial and to charge of the court. In view of the fact that the charge was not objected to at trial on the remaining grounds enumerated, we will not reach those enumerations.

Joseph R. Baker, for appellee.

1979

Notes:

1. The differences in the wills are in the specific bequests of jewelry.

2. Regarding the propounder's burden of proof as to mental capacity and voluntariness, Justice Bleckley demonstrated the uniqueness of wills cases when he wrote: "The truth is, that what the propounders have to carry, on the score of sanity and freedom, is more in the nature of ballast than of cargo. It is just burden enough to sail with -- no more." Thompson v. Davitte, 59 Ga. 472, 475 (1877).