162 Ind. 362 | Ind. | 1904
Appellees, being two sons and two daughters, brought this action to contest the will of' their father William Branstrator, deceased, on the grounds of unsoundness of mind, undue influence, and fraud. The administrator with the will annexed, the widow, four children, and divers grandchildren were made defendants. All
The first assignment of error calls in question the action of the court on the demurrer to the second paragraph of answer; The ruling was clearly right. The answer was not responsive to the complaint. The complaint tendered a single issue, namely, the validity of the instrument purporting to be the will of William Branstrator. The plaintiffs claim no rights under the will, and an answer setting up a forfeiture of rights not claimed is no answer at all.
The court instructed the jury as follows: “The law presumes that every person is of sound mind until the contrary is proved. But when it has been established that a person is of unsound mind the presumption is that that
2. It was incorrect to charge the jury that, if the testator was shown to be of unsound mind at any particular time, the presumption would be that he continued of unsound mind, “unless the evidence further establishes to your satisfaction the fact that his mind afterwards became sound.” On all contested matters of fact it is the weight— the preponderance — of the evidence that satisfies the mind as to what the fact truly is. Hence the quoted language of the court is equivalent to directing the jury that if the mind of the testator has been shown.to be unsound at any time prior to the execution of the will, such condition will be presumed to have continued, unless it has been established by a preponderance of the evidence that his mind
The evidence discloses that the testator for many years became occasionally intoxicated, and when in that condition his speech and conduct were often irrational; and the real controversy at the trial seems to have been whether the unnatural and unreasonable things he said and did were the result of transient intoxication or the offspring of mental perversion. Whether the jury was or was not misled to the injury of the appellants is beyond our.power to determine, and we must therefore hold that the giving of the instruction constitutes reversible error.
There are a large number of questions presented, which have been ably and elaborately argued, but since they
Judgment reversed, with instructions to grant appellants a new trial.