Putnam v. Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co.

Adam Putnam died on June 24, 1930, at the age of about eighty-two years. He was a resident of Ferndale, Humboldt County, and left real and personal property of the value of nearly $300,000. Two children survive him, a daughter, Edna Putnam, and a son, the contestant, William Mason Putnam. The decedent made a will dated November 15, 1927, and a codicil thereto dated October 19, 1928. These instruments were filed for probate. The son, W. M. Putnam, filed an opposition to the probate thereof, alleging general insanity sufficient to deprive the decedent of testamentary capacity, and insane delusions directly affecting the testamentary acts. Answers to the opposition were filed by the contestant’s son, W. M. Putnam, Jr., a legatee under the will; by the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co., named as executor and trustee therein; by Edna Putnam, the decedent’s daughter, and by Mabel C. Putnam and Thomas M. Putnam, Jr., cousin and grandnephew, respectively, of the decedent, who

Adam Putnam was born in Nova Scotia in 1847 and became an orphan at the age of four years. He came to Humboldt County, California, when he was about seventeen years of age and pursued the business of ranching and cattle raising. He was industrious, thrifty and energetic. In the course of years he acquired several ranches and dairy properties. In 1875 he married the daughter of “Dickey” Johnston and settled in Ferndale, where, in 1879, 1881 and 1882, two sons and a daughter were born. One son, Ed, predeceased the testator. In 1893 the decedent had accumulated a fortune and in that year participated in the organization of the Ferndale Bank, of which he was president until the time of his death.

By his will the decedent made the following disposition of his property: He devised and bequeathed the home in Ferndale with its furnishings and his automobile to his daughter, Edna. All of the rest of his property and estate he devised and bequeathed to Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co., as trustee, to collect and pay the income thereof to the following persons: To Edna, his daughter, $500 per month during her lifetime; to his son, the contestant herein, $250 per month during his lifetime; to his grandson, W. M. Putnam, Jr., the sum of $25 per month during his life; to Bertha Johnstone, Mabel Putnam, Thomas M. Putnam, Jr., and Amelia Weir, each the sum of $25 per month during life; to the Ladies Club of Ferndale, $25 a month for a period of five years; to a specified cemetery, $50 a year for the care of the graves of the testator’s parents. Pie directed that in case the income became insufficient to make the foregoing payments, they should be made from principal. All the rest of the income and profit from the

In presenting this appeal the proponents assert an absence of any evidence in the record to the effect that the testator was not capable of transacting his business affairs until shortly before his death and they rely on evidence which shows that despite the testator’s daily use of intoxicating liquors during the latter forty years of his life, he continued as president of the Ferndale Bank and was capable of handling business affairs intelligently; that he was aware of the extent of his property and of the objects of his bounty and the relationship in which he stood toward those who had claims upon him, and was in fact an unusually intelligent, shrewd and energetic man despite his advanced years; and that until his last illness, which commenced a few weeks before his death, he went every day to attend to his business affairs at the bank. On the issue of general insanity the contestant relies mainly upon the habitual use of intoxicating liquors by the decedent, and the effect which the use thereof is stated ordinarily to have upon the physical and mental powers of the user. It may be said at the outset that the evidence is insufficient to support the claim of general insanity. There was

If the verdict may stand, it must necessarily be supported by the evidence relating to the second ground of the contest, viz., that the testator was laboring under an insane delusion with respect to Ms children and directly affecting the testamentary act. There is no substantial conflict in the evidence introduced in support of and in opposition to this ground of contest. The question is whether the undisputed acts and conduct of the decedent evidence an insane or any delusion in fact. It may be conceded that the beliefs and opinions' which the testator held respecting Ms children influenced the disposition of his property as to them. It is the proponents’ contention that the record discloses more than sufficient evidence to serve as a foundation of fact for such beliefs and opinions which removes them from the realm of being insane or any delusion in fact.

The contestant insists that the testator was possessed of an insane delusion which he described as an unexplained, intense and unwarranted hatred and hostility toward Ms wife and her blood relatives, particularly the contestant; an unfounded and fixed belief that Ms children were worthless and incompetent; that they had “too much Johnson”

The following facts are claimed to support the foregoing statement: When Mason and Ed were boys, on one occasion the father beat them so severely with a cane that blood was drawn on Ed’s leg. In 1916 or 1917 one witness saw Adam Putnam as he was walking from his home turn around and shake his clenched fist in the direction of his house and utter an opprobrious epithet. It was in evidence that Putnam repeatedly stated that Edna had no business ability and showed a lack of judgment in handling business matters; that he spoke of his children as being all Johnston, and that there was no Putnam blood in them; that neither his wife nor any of the Johnstons was any good; that he had no use for Mason’s present or his divorced wife; and that he cursed Allison, a friend of Edna’s whom he accused of waiting for him to die so that he could get part of the Putnam estate; that he talked around town of Allison and his intentions, also cast reflections upon the relations between Allison and his daughter until he was admonished by one witness that he was killing his own daughter by his unfounded remarks. After he made his will he wrote to the bank requesting that if it be in order a codicil to his will be prepared to provide against Allison’s ever obtaining anything from the bequest to Edna.

On many occasions, beginning as early as 1905, Putnam, in the presence of others, made disparaging and profane remarks to his wife about her family which caused her to leave the room and weep. He accused his wife of being too much like her father “Dickey” Johnston, who was concededly honest but not much of a business man, and of spending all the money she could get her hands on. It was in evidence that the effect of liquor would make the decedent more cross and overbearing. He often stated that his children had no capacity for handling money; that Mason had no business ability; that there was too

He spoke unkindly to Edna about her friend Allison and his intentions and caused her to cry on several occasions. On other occasions he was heard talking and arguing on the subject in his room when no one else was present. Prior to the making of his will he had announced to witnesses that he was going to put his property in trust for the benefit of his children and inasmuch as he had been an orphan he would leave the rest to orphan asylums, that his own children would squander the money; that Allison was hanging around Edna only to get his money; that Edna was no longer of an age when a man would be likely to marry her for herself alone; that Mason’s wife was an adventuress; that he did not care if the orphans squandered it, but he would fix it so his own children w’ould not squander it.

The following further undisputed facts appear: Putnam placed Mason in Tamalpais Military Academy in San Eafael for two years before he reached his majority. Thereafter Mason attended business school in Eureka. In 1902 he started working for his uncle at the Bayside Lumber Co. in Humboldt County at $40 a month as a bookkeeper. About this time he took out a $5,000 life insurance policy on which his father paid the initial and most of the subse

In 1906 Mason went to Alaska and worked in copper mines, for a time underground and later as a bookkeeper and accountant, until 1911. During this period he sent between $3,000 and $4,000 to his father. Before he left Alaska he became interested in the fur business and with two others took a lease on Green Island for the purpose of raising fur-bearing animals. In 1911 "he returned to California and lived in the Putnam family home in Oakland. He began drawing on his credit with his father and by November of that year had used up his savings. In that year he married Nina Putnam and continued to live in the Putnam home in Oakland. In 1911 and 1912 he obtained sums of money from two of his uncles and from a third party on his promissory notes for $350, $125 and $250. In June, 1912, he borrowed $1,055 on the life insurance policy, $400 of which he turned over to his father to discharge a note executed to Professor T. M. Putnam of Berkeley, and went back to Alaska with his wife. The fall of that year was spent on Green Island. That venture, representing an investment of $700 to $1,000, was sold out for $1,200. Thereafter • until 1915 he and his wife lived at Kachemak Bay without income, engaged in hunting and fishing expeditions. Mason and his father continued to correspond and Adam Putnam was advised of these activities. In fact, Mason continued to write to his father in affectionate terms during the latter’s lifetime and kept him informed of his activities and the details of his domestic life.

Mason borrowed money in Juneau in the spring of 1915 and he and his wife returned to the family home in Oakland. Mason spent part of that year in an attempt to raise money for a fox propagating venture in Alaska and

In 1923 Nina Putnam divorced Mason on the ground of nonsupport. Nina discussed with Adam Putnam her difficulties with Mason and the regularity of week-end drinking parties at their apartment over a period of eight years. Adam Putnam paid the expenses of the divorce and paid also the expenses of three operations performed on the child. At this time Mason was receiving a salary of $165 a month. So far as the record shows he has continued in the employment of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. In 1923 Adam Putnam investigated Mason’s chances for advancement in the company and received a report from its then president that Mason could not be advanced inasmuch as he showed no executive ability. In 1926 Mason married Mrs. Strange.

It was in evidence that Edna Putnam, who always lived at home and managed the household after her mother’s death, had extravagant tastes, and although Adam Putnam often complained of them, he nevertheless was indulgent by giving her expensive automobiles, a $1450 Steinway piano and a $2,150 diamond ring. He took her on trips to the Orient and elsewhere, even when her mother was living, and gave her shares of stock and Liberty Bonds, bought her a one-half interest in a gasoline service station, and allowed her to spend nearly $10,000 in remodeling and refurnishing the home at Ferndale.

It appears that as early as the year 1915 the decedent formed the intention of leaving his property in trust. In that year he wrote to Professor Putnam asking him to act as a trustee under his will.

From the foregoing brief statement and other evidence in a voluminous record, it is obvious that there was abundant ground to support a normal parental belief that the children were incapable of the wise handling of large amounts of capital. It cannot be said that the will is unnatural in view of the evidentiary facts. No case is cited by the contestant which goes so far as to hold that when a foundation in fact for the testator’s belief is disclosed, such belief constitutes an insane delusion, or any delusion at all. The cases are to the contrary. The only reasonable conclusion from the record before us is that the testator was possessed of a parental belief, not abnormal or unfounded under the facts, relating to his son’s ability to handle money, and that he took steps to protect him with an income adequate to his needs in addition to his own earnings for the balance of his life. Even though there may have been discord in the family during the decedent’s lifetime or even injustice in the division of income between the children, that alone would not be sufficient to set aside a will executed by one in full possession of his mental

The judgment is reversed. The order denying the motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict is reversed.

Preston, J., Langdon, J., Curtis, J., and Waste, C. J., concurred.

Rehearing denied.