234 Pa. 528 | Pa. | 1912
Opinion by
This was an issue devisavit vel non, in which the ground of contest was alleged undue influence. The only possible explanation of the verdict condemning
The proponent of the will was the widow to whom testator had given in her own right by far the greater part of his estate. The inequality created by the will is apparent, the discrimination being against these plaintiffs, children of testator’s first wife, and the only children testator left surviving. The inequality extends as well to the shares given the children, some are given more than others. It is the contention of the plaintiffs that the will in question was procured by undue influence exercised upon testator’s mind by the proponent and her sister, who resided in testator’s family and to whom he had given a legacy of $1,000. The intervention of no other party is even suggested, so we have to consider the conduct of these two alone. First, let us observe what affirmatively appears in the evidence. The testator, in what may justly be regarded as unseemly haste following upon the death of his first wife, married the proponent. This, together with the fact that proponent occupied a humbler station in life, having previously been an employee in the laundry owned and operated by the testator, gave offense to the plaintiffs, and resulted in estrangement between them and their father, which continued more or less marked until testator’s death, except in the case of one of the daughters, Mrs. McCardell. None of the children resided with their father at the time of this second marriage, each having a home of his or her own. That this second marriage, apart from the estrangement of his children, contributed to the comfort and happiness in a marked degree of the testator abundantly appears, not only by his own frequent declarations to this effect, but by his attachment to his re-established home and his domestic life therein. That he entertained for this wife a most affectionate regard cannot be questioned. Neither can it be questioned that she made Mm a kind