267 Mass. 310 | Mass. | 1929
In the Probate Court a motion for a jury issue, whether the will of Mary L. Loring was procured by the fraud or undue influence of C. Marc Johnson and Marion A. Johnson or either of them, was allowed.
The judge of probate heard the statements of counsel and also heard certain witnesses. The estate of Miss Loring, according to the statements of counsel, was about $10,000. She gave to her brother $200, to C. Marc Johnson $500, to Marion A. Johnson $1,000, to various friends legacies from $50 to $500; the residue of her estate she gave to Marion A. Johnson. In his report of the material facts the judge of probate states that Isaac Loring, the decedent’s brother, testified that she said to him some time after the will in question was executed, “Isaac, I have done wrong and I am sorry. I have been misled”; that counsel for the contestants stated that on one occasion when Isaac called on his sister he found Johnson there; that Isaac said “when my sister gets better or when my sister is able to move, I am going to take her home,” and that “Johnson turned his back on him and said nothing.” The judge denied the motion, so far as it related to the issue, whether the decedent was “of sound and disposing mind and memory at the time of the execution” of the will.
Issues for a jury are not to be framed unless there appears in the evidence or in the statements of counsel sufficient ground for a reasonable expectation of a result favorable to the party requesting the framing of issues. It must appear that there is a genuine controversy, and some evidence of a
Order reversed.
