41 N.J. Eq. 409 | New York Court of Chancery | 1886
The inquisition in this case is signed by nineteen of the twenty-four jurors. They find that the alleged lunatic “is of sound mind, and is capable of controlling her property by her own selection of a proper person to act for her.” The other five certify that she is “ not of sufficient understanding to enable her to manage her property.” She is about sixty-five years old and has never been married. The commissioners have made a report concerning her condition. They say that she is not an idiot or lunatic in the popular sense of the words; that she has been a deaf mute ever since she was two or three years old; that she is ignorant, having never been taught any language, whether spoken or of signs; that she can neither read nor write, and cannot express to others her understanding, if any she have, of any business transaction; that she cannot be made to comprehend a business transaction, except perhaps a very ordinary one, involving no more money than a dollar or two; that she has learned to fetch and carry, and to do common, every-day housework— that is, she can sweep, wash, cook an ordinary meal &c.; that it is possible by rude gestures to communicate to her a desire that she should do such work; that she has never managed her property nor any part thereof, and that the acting trustee of her estate has never informed her of the amount, character or income of her property, and that it is doubtful whether she can be so informed; that she has always been cared for by her near relatives with whom she has lived — by her mother for about fifty years, and until her mother’s death; after her mother’s death by her unmarried sister so long as that sister lived, and since that sister’s death by her married sister, with whom she now lives.
Application is made to set aside the inquisition on the ground that the finding is contrary to the evidence.
Lord Hale says that a man deaf and dumb from his birth is, in presumption of law, an idiot; and the rather because he has no possibility to understand what is forbidden by law to be done, or under what penalties. He also says that if it can appear that
The inquisition will be set aside.