Jennings v. Pendergast

Le Grand, C. J., delivered the opinion of this court. We confess we have had great difficulty in coming to a conclusion in this case. The testatrix was ninety-six years of age at the time of the execution of the will in contest. This circumstance standing alone is of great weight, and although not,,per se, conclusive, yet goes far, when the common history of humanity is considered, to induce the belief that the party attaining so advanced an age must be much weakened in mind, if not reduced to that state which the books designate as fatuity.

In the case before us the deductions to be made from the fact of extreme old age are strengthened by the peculiar character of the will; it disinherits the only son of the testatrix and eight grand-children, the offspring of two deceased daughters. It makes, in the first instance, none of the blood of the testatrix the object of her bounty, but gives it all to her son-in-law, the appellee, to the exclusion of his wife, her daughter. When is added to these facts the additional one, that a few days before the making of the will, the appellant and only son of the testatrix was confined in jail, on the complaint of some unknown person, for an alleged assault on her, and there remained for some months, and then discharged without trial; and also, that the appellee, the sole beneficiary under the will, procured its preparation by counsel, the caséis certainly surrounded with great suspicion. Did it rest entirely on these facts we would not hesitate to reverse the order of the orphans court.

But the conclusions to be drawn from