84 A.D. 114 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1903
■ The appellant appeals to the duty which this court has always recognized to protect the estates of - dead men from fraudulent claims. It is urged that this verdict was against the weight of the evidence and was prompted by sympathy, and was in defiance of principles of law, and in excess of the just indebtedness of this estate. We think the defendant’s claim is not'sustained by the evidence. In October, 1898, the date of the execution of the codicil to his will by the intestate, he recognized an indebtedness of $500 to the plaintiff for services which had been at that time rendered.
The judgment has been assailed, however, for errors of the trial judge in the admission of evidence. Three witnesses, who were experienced nurses, have sworn to the value of plaintiff’s services. The question as first asked of these witnesses was probably incompetent. Upon cross-examination, however, each witness swore that her testimony as to the value simply referred to the time when the plaintiff nursed defendant’s intestate, and that they did not pretend to state the value of other services rendered at other times. It is true that one or two of the witnesses swore that they were not acquainted with the value of the services of an untrained nurse, but the time
The appellant further complains of the rulings of the trial court admitting in evidence the paper signed upon September fifteenth, by which the defendant’s intestate attempted to give to the plaintiff all of his property. But the defendant had introduced the codicil to the prior will which seemed to indicate an understanding of the testator that plaintiff was to receive $500, and $60 .a year from the date of the codicil in addition thereto only for her services. It was Competent, therefore, for the plaintiff to show the destruction of the former will, which carried with it the destruction of the codicil, and the execution of a new paper purporting to give all of his property to the plaintiff, in, connection with his statements, that for such services as she had rendered she was entitled to all of his property. It is a recognition, at least, of the-value of her services to the extent of $900, which he had theretofore provided as payment therefor.
. The appellant further complains that costs were taxed in the judgment without the certificate of the trial judge that the plaintiff’s claim was unreasonably resisted; but such costs w;ere taxed without objection. There was no motion made in the court below to strike them from the judgment. If such a motion had been made, the plaintiff might have applied for and obtained such a certificate from the trial judge. Without' objection made in the court below, this question cannot, for the first time, be raised upon this appeal. For these reasons we think this judgment should be affirmed.
All concurred, except Chase, J., dissenting.
Judgment and order affirmed, with costs.