In re the Contested Will of Hock

The papers propounded in this cause as the will and a codicil thereto of John Hock were executed on the 27th day of April, 1910, in the city of Hew York, in the house where John Hock then lived. The will and codicil were attested by the lawyer who drafted them and by two

The objections to the probate in this proceeding are taken by Bessie Hock and Frank Hock, the grandchildren of the testator. They are the children of a deceased son. Apparently their mother, testator’s daughter-in-law, has also filed objections to the will and codicil, she having been cited to attend the probate.

The will in controversy leaves the testator’s estate to his only surviving son, Jacob, and it nominates Jacob sole executor. The codicil, bearing date on the same day as the will, bequeaths $100 to each of his daughters-in-law, and to his grandchildren, Bessie and Frank Hock, $50 and $100, respectively. Otherwise it confirms and ratifies the will. The attesting witnesses to both instruments propounded are the same persons.

Just prior to the execution of the papers propounded, John Hock appeal’s to have placed all of his personal property in this jurisdiction, consisting of money in savings banks, in the names of his son, Jacob,- and himself, to be held for their joint account. If such transfers were complete to carry title to Jacob, which I doubt (Matter of Bolin, 136 N. Y. 177 ; Estate of Laetitia M. Myers, N. Y. L. J., April 21, 1911, opinion of Surrogate Oohalan, and their validity is not involved in this proceeding), it would seem as if there were no personal property of testator which will pass under the will and codicil in controversy. Substantially all the residue of John Hock’s estate consists of a house and lot in the State of Hew Jersey. It is of no great value. Heither the will nor the codicil contains a power of sale to the executors, notwithstanding this situation of the-estate, testimony taken.

The objections to probate are founded on the common allegations of intestability and undue influence, and the proofs given in ón these points by both proponent and contestants are most voluminous. Contested wills have become so common as to greatly resemble the former course of probate in solemn form, where the proponents were compelled by a caveat to give evidence in detail and under oath of all matters relating to the factum of will. The evidence of the contestants is, under the present practice, oftentimes so insufficient as to relieve the proponents of the necessity of giving what Surrogate Bradford accurately terms “ adminicular proofs ” to support the probate. This case is hardly such an instance as that suggested as too common practice, but in this cause it seems to the surrogate that contestants’ proofs fall far short of those which justly authorize the surrogate to disturb the will of the dead. Such proofs ought to be irresistible. Whenever their effect is doubtful in law, or when the proofs are unrelated to the precise allegations stated in the objections to probate, the presumption should be for the will, if the factum of will is otherwise established. In this cause John Hock, the alleged testator, appears from the testimony to have been an illiterate man, following very respectably throughout his' life the vocation of a peddler, in which he accumulated some little estate. For some time before the execution of the papers propounded, Jacob Hock, the only surviving son of the testator, lived with John Hock in the same house or in the same household. Jacob’s young children throughout this period seem to have been the chief objects of the testator’s constant solicitude. As they were deprived of the care of their mother by reason of a mental malady which confined her to a distant place, the grandfather, John Hock, seems to have stood to Jacob’s children in loco parentis. Such care as he could give them John Hock intel

In this particular cause intestability and undue influence, althoiigh inconsistent allegations, are both charged by contestants. While the testator had an undoubted right to do what he pleased with his own, if want of testamentary capacity, or moral coercion, amounting in law to undue influence, is here established by contestants, the papers propounded as John Hock’s will are not entitled to probate.

Concerning the allegation of want of testamentary capacity, it appears that John Hock was about sixty-eight years of age when the papers propounded were executed. He seems to have been of average intelligence through life, but in waning health when.he affixed his signature to the will and codicil. His ability to sign his name was the- extent of his literary" accomplishments, as he could neither read nor otherwise write. Much testimony was given by contestants bearing on the. mental peculiarities of testator, but no evidence appears' as to testator’s normal conduct in life, so that the surrogate is unable to determine that such peculiarities are in his case abnormal or even evidential of mental disorder. A brusque, rough manner which is natural to one person indicates nothing but mental health to him, whereas such roughness in a person habitually gentle and refined may have a totally

It is certainly impossible to compare the eccentricities of John Hock with those of the average man, for no such man exists, except in imagination. Without precise proofs of John Hock’s ordinary habit of mind and body it is impossible for the surrogate to say whether unrelated instances of eccentricity in his case have or have not a' bearing on John Hock’s mental condition on the day the testamentary papers were executed. The surrogate cannot, therefore, attach much

There was also evidence given in this matter of some possible delusions on the part of John Hock, not at the precise moment of testamentation, but at a time when John Hock was undoubtedly managing his ordinary affairs, looking after Jacob’s children and able to take care of himself. If we assume that the testimony bearing on the alleged delusions of John Hock establishes such delusions, and on that point there is grave doubt, as the testimony is not very clear, what is the effect of such delusions on the mental capacity of John Hock at the moment of testamentation? It is not enough to establish occasional delusions of a testator; they must in some way.enter into the will itself in-order to have legal consequences. The will complained of must be the actual offspring of the delusion; otherwise the two things stand unconnected. It is not apparent, if we assume that J ohn Hock had several delusions as to matters not connected with his will, that the contestants have in any way established in this cause that the will was their offspring.. In so far as such delusions show general weakened mentality, they may have some indirect consequence in view of subsequent events, but in that connection only.

We now come to the serious point in this cause. The.will and testament propounded were executed by John Hock on the 27th day of April, 1910. On the 8th day of May, 1910, John Hock, the testator, was taken away from his home to Bellevue hospital, and upon the 9th day of May, 1910, he was adjudged insane and committed by a justice of the Supreme Court to the Manhattan State hospital, Ward’s Island, where he was taken May 11, 1910. On June 2, 1910, John Hock died. Thirteen and one-half hours after death an autopsy on the body of John Hock was performed by the superintendent of the Manhattan State hospital by consent of Jacob Hock, the son and principal beneficiary under the will of John Hock. If Jacob Hock had been fearful of consequences he would have withheld his assent to such autopsy. Fortunately he did not.

The medical evidence given in by the contestants was, in

In the course of the cross-examination of the medical experts -put on the stand by contestants the proponent’s counsel read to the witnesses extracts from medical works of authority and asked if they did not express opinions different from those testified to by the witness on the stand. Upon the motion of the guardian for infants the surrogate excluded and struck out parts of these extracts where the medical witness stated that he did agree with them. . It is sometimes • the custom on trials of this character to read from medical books written by eminent physicians, and ask whether or not authors whom the witness admitted to be good authority have not expressed opinions different from 'that given upon the stand. In such cases the reference is not for the purpose of making the statements in the books evidence'before a jury, but solely for the purpose of ascertaining the weight to be given to the

It is now necessary to review briefly the elaborate medical testimony given in on the -hearing. The testimony of the physician at Bellevue was to the effect that John Hock was suffering from senile psychosis (which in the vernacular is nothing but senile degeneration), and that John Hock, by reason thereof, was of unsound mind on the 8th or 9th of May, 1910. A very able and really learned cross-examination of the medical experts on the part of counsel (more pro

The physicians at the Manhattan State hospital were in a good position to give testimony of weight. It appears from their testimony that John Hock was afflicted with a very rare species of tumor in the brain, glioma of the corpus callosum, some twenty instances only of which are known to science. John Hock, however, it-is to be noted, died of pneumonia.

•The first diagnosis at the Manhattan State hospital seems to'have revealed that John Hock was afflicted with some sort of hemiplegia or paralysis, but nothing definite was proved as to its origin or as to the date it first occurred, and one physician stated on the stand that all of his professional diagnoses amounted to nil in view of the autopsy on the body of John Hock. The testimony of the Manhattan medical authorities seems to-the surrogate to completely nullify the testimony of the Bellevue physician to the effect that John Hock was afflicted with senile dementia, and to establish that John Hock’s sole mental malady was occasioned by the tumor before mentioned. The substance of the competent but very technical medical testimony given in on the hearing seems, when translated into common speech, to establish the following facts, namely, that a. tumor in the brain does not necessarily occasion insanity until the premortal symptoms set in, and that the breakdown from this disorder may be sudden' and complete, and at a late stage of the patient’s existence. During the progress of the disease the functions of the brain often adapt themselves to the pressure occasioned by the tumor, and thus ordinary mental conditions may coexist with the various stages of the growth of tumors in the brain. That such is the bsneficent course of nature is a matter of common observation, which in ordinary matters could be established

The testimony of John Hock’s own physician disclosed nothing of any consequence .concerning a specific mental malady. To him John Hock was ill, of what he seems to be uncertain. This physician, however, was a therapeutist and confessedly inexpert on mental disorders, nor did his testimony go to the day the testamentary papers were executed. His general diagnosis and conclusions seem at variance with those of the very learned physicians put on the stand by contestants. These were the witnesses who were unquestionably qualified as experts in mental derangements, and their testimony did not, in my opinion, aid contestants.

It is at this point that we come to an interesting rule of practice. The contestants who placed on the stand the hospital staff of physicians now claim that they are not their witnesses and that they are not bound by their testimony because such witnesses are among a large number mentioned in a notice and order procured by the contestants themselves under section 2618 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The contestants would have the surrogate ignore the effect of the adverse testimony of any witness named in such notice or order and resort to other evidence offered on the insanity issue so as to spell out in that way intestability.

The practice of filing a notice for the examination of witnesses, before the surrogate in contested probates and procuring an order therefor based on such notice, has been for a long period common practice in this jurisdiction, and it has grown out of all relation to what I conceive to be the true meaning of section 2618 of the Code of Civil Procedure. A contestant by simply filing a notice for the examination of

In this State probate by the rules . of the ecclesiastical courts, which once guided the Hew York courts of probate, was originally made in two forms designated as “ probate in common form ” and “-probate in solemn form.” Probate in solemn form might be procured by the -interposition of a caveat. Goodrich v. Pendleton, 4 Johns. Ch. 549 , 552, 558; Vanderheyden v. Reid, Hopk. Ch. 408; revd. Reid v. Vanderheyden, 5 Cow. 720 ; Bogardus v. Clarke, 1 Edw. Ch. 266 , 4 Paige, 623; Heyer v. Burger, 1 Hoff. Ch. 1 , 12. These cases cited, sufficiently indicate the former use of the caveat in probate proceedings in this State. When the original -jurisdiction of the old courts of probate devolved wholly on the surrogates, section 11 of chapter 460 of the Laws of 1837 was passed as a substitute probably for the old caveat. It is extremely doubtful if the act of 1837 was intended to go' beyond the old caveat or do more than bring about a probate more solemn than the ordinary forms of law required. The act of 1837 provided for the examination “ of attesting witnesses ” after a notice to that end had been served. Two witnesses in common probate sufficed, but after such a notice all the resident witnesses, no matter how many, must be examined.- Robertson v. Caw, 3 Barb. 410 , 414; Caw v. Robertson, 5 N. Y. 125 . This notice under the act of 1837 was, I think, intended to operate as a caveat, and to have no such extraordinary effect as is now claimed for it.

Chapter 129 of the Laws of 1841, however, increased the scope of section 11 "of chapter 460, Laws of 1837, so as to make it apply “ to all witnesses whom any person interested in the proof of a will shall request to be examined.” These statutes of 1837 and 1841 were ultimately taken into section 2618 of Part II of the Code of Civil Procedure. The effect of these sections has been since held to inhibit the surrogate from granting probate without the examination of all the witnesses specified in a notice given under section 2618, Code of Civil Procedure. Hoyt v. Jackson, 2 Dem. 443 , 445, 446; Matter of McGovern, 5 id. 424; Matter of Beard, 41 Hun, 89 . Such a notice has, therefore, if strictly

Surrogate Eollins has held that the duty of producing the witnesses specified in the notice or order under section 2618 falls on proponents., but that whether they are to be examined by proponents or contestants is in the discretion of the surrogate. He has held also that if either party fail- to examine any such witness it is the duty of the surrogate himself so to do. Hoyt v. Jackson, 2 Dem. 455 , 456, 457. The rule stated in Hoyt v. Jackson may be correct. Surrogate Eollins was a probate jndge of great distinction and excellence. But if he is right, why is probate so often allowed in this jurisdiction after such notice without the examination of all the witnesses specified in such notice or order ? If the statute is as mandatory as it is held in the case last cited, can there be a constructive waiver of its provisions, and is the defect in the decree of probate, if such witnesses be not examined, cured by section 2473, Code of Civil Procedure, except in collateral proceedings? These are very important questions of practice and they ought to be set at rest, .and not left as they now are.

I am inclined to hold for the present, or until it is regularly decided by some competent tribunal to the contrary, that the parties may waive either actually or-constructively the necessity of calling, any “ surrogate’s witnesses ” not essential to prove the factwm of will, and to give to the statute in question such construction as will effectuate what I conceive to be its real end and purpose.

We come now to another important point made on section 2618 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is commonly claimed in this jurisdiction that -a notice or order under section 2618 of the Code of Civil Procedure makes all the witnesses specified under that section “ surrogate’s witnesses,” whatever that term means. As it is common practice for contestants to place the names of all their witnesses in such a notice or order under, section 2618, the effect of such contention, if correct, is that all the contestants’ witnesses become surrogate’s witnesses, so called. Contestants

Certainly when a party and not the surrogate calls to the stand the witnesses mentioned in- such a notice or order, the party ought not thereby to be relieved from the ordinary rules of examination or evidence usually followed in courts of probate.. Until admonished by a higher authority I will not hold that a party placing a witness other than an attesting witness on the stand can impeach such a witness at pleasure in the Surrogate’s Court, nor will I hold that the party so placing the witness on the stand is not bound by the evidence of any witness he calls (excepting in cases of surprise under the ordinary rules of evidence).' The ruling on this point doubtless should be different as to subscribing witnesses, for there the proponent is obliged to call the witness (Estate of Bogert, 4 Civ. Pro. 441, 447; affd., 6 id. 128; Matter of Moore, 109 App. Div. 766 , 767; Conselyea v. Walker, 2 Dem. 123 ), and proponent ought not always to be bound by such testimony against the will in such a case, for he may be able to prove the will contrary to the evidence of the attesting witnesses. But in the case of a “ surrogate’s witness ” other than an attesting witness no such reason exists, unless, perhaps, the surrogate suo motu compels the proponent or contestant to examine the witness. Whether the surrogate can, as intimated in Hoyt v. Hoyt, 5 Dem. 424 , order proponents to examine hostile witnesses of contestants other than attesting.witnesses, because such witnesses are specified by contestants in a notice or order, T have some doubt on constitutional grounds, for then the proceeding ceases to be a trial and becomes an inquisition. How, although a probate is a proceeding in rem, as said in Hoyt v. Hoyt, a contested probate is a trial, nevertheless, of am issue of fact, and

I myself certainly will not undertake to order proponents against their will to examine contestants’ witnesses because they are named by contestants in a notice or order procured under section 2618, Code of Civil Procedure. If the duty is on the surrogate to examine such witnesses, in default of an examination by the parties, as stated in the cases cited, then the surrogate ought not in any event, in my judgment, to delegate the duty, but he should perform it himself.

• In view of what has just been stated I accordingly hold that the contestants are bound by the testimony of the hospital physicians whom they themselves called to the stand, even though contestants procured the names of such physicians to be placed in a notice and order obtained by •them under section 2618, Code of Civil Procedure. The testimony of such physicians shows conclusively that John Hock was not necessarily insane on -the day he executed the . testamentary paper in question, or rather it shows that the nature of John Hock’s final disorder- does not necessarily imply incompetency on the day of the execution of said will. Having thus held, it next becomes the duty of the surrogate to consider the testimony of the lay witnesses called by the contestants to prove irrationality from particular acts or conduct. Such testimony in this cause is of a very trilling nature, and the acts and conduct specified are too insignificant to authorize any conclusion of testator’s insanity.

We come now to the contestant’s allegation that John Hock Avas unduly influenced to make the will propounded. It has been pointed out in a decision which commends itself to me not only because it binds me, but because of its logic, that an allegation of undue influence is inconsistent with an allegation of insanity. Ilinne v. Johnson, 60 Barb. 69 . Certainly this must be so. Hndue influence presupposes- some one who in law may be influenced; An insane person or one non compos mentis may not, in law, be influenced. The law Avould take no notice of a charge of influence on a mens insana. The tAvo allegations of insanity and undue influence are absolutely

That John Hock should leave his little property to the son who lived with him is not unnatural. This son and his children were a part of John Hock’s daily care and a part of the household maintained by him in life, and, so far as John Hock had a human interest, the testimony discloses that, it was confined to this household. 'Certainly there is nothing unnatural or irrational on the face of such a will.

In-view of the circumstances of the estate of John Hock given in evidence, the surrogate would have been perhaps justified in letting the case stand over, notwithstanding the rule that such matters do not go to the jurisdiction of a probate proceeding. Matter of Davis, 182 N. Y. 468 . Provided the transfers to Jacob are such, the will here operates immediately on nothing. As to the real property of testator, it lies wholly in the State of Hew Jersey. But on the insistence of the parties to this cause it has been heard at great length and with close attention, with the result which I have in this opinion endeavored to indicate.

Let a decision and decree for the probate of the papers propounded as the will and a codicil thereto of John IToclc be submitted to me for my 'signature. The guardian of the infants and proponent are entitled to costs.

Decreed accordingly-.