Griffith v. Hannam

HANSON, J. pro tem.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered by the trial court based upon its finding that the will presented by appellants for probate was executed by the testator as a result of the undue influence of his wife, one of the appellants herein. The only contention made here by appellants is that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the judgment.

The testator at the time of his death was 78 years old. He left surviving him his wife, to whom he had been married 53 years, a son named Harry, and two granddaughters, one named Dorothy, the daughter of Harry, and another named Maxine King, the adult daughter of a son who had predeceased' the testator. Por a period of »30 years prior to his death the decedent had operated a sheet metal and iron shop in Los Angeles. He left an estate derived largely from the business of a value somewhere between $35,000 and $80,000.

Early in 1947 decedent employed as a secretary a woman by the name of Grace Mackey. In May, 1948, he went to the office of an attorney to have a power of attorney drawn. He told the lawyer that Miss Mackey was his silent partner in his business and he wished to give her complete authority to manage his business affairs in his absence. Such a power of attorney was drawn and he executed it in August, 1948. On September 22, 1948, he sold his remaining partnership interest in his business to Miss Mackey for $1,000. The sale was evidenced by a bill of sale which was promptly recorded. At the same time he caused his attorney to prepare a will likewise dated September 22, 1948, which he duly executed. This will, which is not the will here involved but which was the will admitted to probate, made three cash bequests; one of $100 to his granddaughter Maxine King, another of $100 to his son Harry and still another of $1,000 to his secretary and partner. All the rest of his property he bequeathed to his wife for life with the remainder to a trustee who was to pay the sum

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of $100 per month to his son during his life and $50 per month to his granddaughter Maxine King during her life and upon the death of the last of these beneficiaries the remainder was to pass to his secretary, if she was living, otherwise to his granddaughter Dorothy.

Late in January, 1949—about four months after the transactions above narrated—decedent was suddenly taken ill. At the hospital his case was diagnosed as being that of cancer. The will which is here involved which left all his property outright to his wife was executed by the decedent in a sanitarium to which he had been removed. The facts so far stated are undisputed. We pass now to relate further facts which the court upon the evidence and all proper inferences therefrom could have found to be true facts.