Jeffries v. California Trust Co.

[589]

DORAN, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment declaring that the will of Fred Jack Young, deceased, executed on November 16, 1936, and theretofore admitted to probate, “is the valid, subsisting and legally sufficient last will and testament of said named decedent”, and disallowing in its entirety the claim of the contestant and appellant, Elizabeth Jefferies, a first cousin of the decedent. The will in question nominated the California Trust Company as executor, and directed that the whole of the estate be distributed to the decedent’s “good old friends Tom Bonetto and his wife Josephine Bonetto”.

Mr. Young was an unmarried man, and, at the time of the execution of the will, was 82 years of age. He had left England at the age of fourteen years, and apparently had never returned. Appellant Elizabeth Jefferies, who resided permanently in England, had not known the decedent during his lifetime, and had at no time been in communication with him.

Mr. Young died on November 20, 1937, at the Mountain View Rest Home in Monrovia, California. The will was admitted to probate on December 17, 1937, and the California Trust Company was appointed the executor.

On May 31, 1938, said Elizabeth Jefferies filed a contest to the will, after probate. The case came on for trial and the sole question submitted to the jury for its verdict was: “Was the decedent, Fred Young, also known as Fred Jack Young, of sound mind on November 16, 1936, at the time he signed the will here in contest?” This the jury answered in the affirmative.

The record reveals that in June of 1936, the decedent had been under observation at the psychopathic ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital; that on June 16, 1936, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County had found, after a proper hearing, that the decedent was “mentally disordered and bordering on insanity, but not dangerously insane”. He was thereupon committed to the care and custody of the Rancho Los Amigos, an institution maintained for phychopathic cases in Los Angeles County. On September 11, 1936, in proceedings had for that purpose, the California Trust Company was appointed the guardian of Mr. Young’s estate. Some time during the month of September, 1936, Mr. Young