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Use of Legal Terms in Will Contests: Implications for Psychiatrists

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Use of Legal Terms in Will Contests: Implications for Psychiatrists Use of Legal Terms in Will Contests: Implications for Psychiatrists Daniel J. Sprehe, MD and Ann Loughridge Kerr, JD This article reviews legal concepts involved in challenges to wills and how wills are influenced by psychiatric testimony. The outcome of litigation in certain landmark cases and in cases from the extensive experience of the first author is discussed. Clarifications of legal terms of art such as "lucid interval," "testamen- tary capacity," "undue influence," and "insane delusion" are offered. Pre-death psychiatric evaluations are becoming increasingly important in an aging popula- tion more susceptible to mental impairment. From the point of view of the law, a volved contested wills were reviewed. A testator who is old and sick is still the careful survey of the facts and circum- owner of his assets and should be ac- stances surrounding the cases reveals corded the respect given any owner. To some interesting results. Although there ascertain and identify exceptions to those was an allusion to medical testimony, circumstances, the legal system has de- most of the judges in these cases did not veloped certain terms of art, which are seem to found their decision on the doc- not used by medical doctors but describe tor's report unless this doctor was the certain conditions, such as "lucid inter- treating physician. In no case was there a val," "testamentary capacity," "undue in- testator who was in the last stages of fluence,'' and "insane delusion." These Alzheimer's disease, although there were legal terms are frequently mentioned in many early senility cases. Undue influ- will contest cases in which the mental ence or fraud was alleged in 14 cases and state of mind of the testator is a key issue. proved in 5 cases. In 3 cases the divorce To explain the influence of this use of of the testator and estrangement from the terminology. 23 landmark cases that in- child were mentioned. In all but 2 of the 23 cases, the testator appeared to be over Dr. Sprehe is clinical professor of psychiatry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. Dr. Kerr is an attorney in 70 years of age at the time of making the Clearwater, FL. This article was presented at the annual will in question, although the testator's meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, San Antonio, TX, October 1993. Address corre- age was not specifically mentioned in 10 spondence to: Daniel J. Sprehe, MD, University of South Florida, Suite 4, 800 West Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., cases. In the 13 cases where the age of the Tampa, FL 33603. testator could actually be determined, two Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1996 255 Sprehe and Kerr of the testators were over 90 years old. that does not bear directly on the provi- seven were over 80, and three were over sions of the will is not usually considered 70 at the time of signing the will at issue a reason to negate it. Generally, the courts before the court. will lean favorably in the direction of protecting family integrity if there is a Basic Issues Involved in balance of testimony, since it is in the Challenges to a Will state's interest that families care for them- Wills are usually challenged by dis- selves and not become wards of the state. gruntled family members who have been Suicide subsequent to a will does not in left out or slighted after an earlier will had itself negate the will. Courts, in the inter- named them in what they felt to be a more est of family maintenance, are unlikely to appropriate way. Occasions for these will uphold a will that pauperizes a helpless contests include: (I) a later will differing member of the family. Distant relatives from an earlier will, since any will acts to who have not seen a testator for many revoke prior wills, with different relatives years, but who are the only natural rela- as beneficiaries; (2) an older person dis- tives, seldom prevail in a will contest in poses of his or her property in a will that which the testator has willed his posses- is "detrimental" to family members who sions to a church, Moose lodge, or other had expected the property to be left to meaningful organizations in his life. them; (3) the older person marries or be- Courts have consistently held, in cases comes involved affectionately with a per- testing the validity of a will, that: "It is son who family members question; (4) the policy of the law to hold wills good the older person becomes mentally inca- wherever it can be done. This, according pacitated or shows evidence of severe to the authorities, is particularly true of physical incapacity before the will is old people. They are, no doubt, generally made; (5) The older person becomes speaking, reasonably easily influenced more susceptible to the influence of oth- and are generally childish and forgetful ers by virtue of a change in his or her and possibly, from the layman's view- circumstances (i.e., either physical or point, not qualified to make a will. But mental disability or unusual dependence the only weapon these old people have to on the influencing person); (6) the older enforce consideration and good treatment person refuses medical intervention or a of themselves, and proper care, is the procedure that may be necessary to pro- power to dispose of their estate by will."' long his or her life, thus bringing up the In In re Estate of Weil the court noted that question of competency. short-term memory loss did not render a Hospitalization for mental illness alone testator mentally incompetent. "The ratio- is not a reason to consider a person in- nale behind the requirement that the tes- competent to make a will. A delusion that tator recollect who are 'the natural objects bears directly on the individual's reason- of his bounty' appears to be founded upon ing for provisions of his will would affect the reasoning that one of the purposes of testamentary capacity, while a delusion making a will is to change the prospective 256 Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1996 Use of Legal Terms in Will Contests inheritance of heirs so that they would not berson, an 89-year-old man left his estate take the property of the testator in the to his housekeeperlcaretaker of only one manner provided for by intestate succes- month and the court held "when consid- sion; and that while prospective heirs ered with the fact that the disposition of have no present legal interest in the tes- decedent's entire estate to a person he had tator's property, the law regards their ex- known for only a few weeks was an un- pectations as something which a compe- natural disposition, the 'before' and 'af- tent testator will normally have in mind, ter' evidence of the testator's mental con- for these expectations will, by the very dition was sufficient to sustain the trial act of making a testamentary disposition, court's conclusion that decedent lacked be changed."* Further, the court reasoned testamentary capacity when the will in ". .it is obvious that the inquiry concern- question was e~ecuted."~In this case the ing this element of testamentary capacity former housekeeper got too sick to care must be focused on whether the testator for the 89-year-old testator, so a woman has the capacity to know who these ob- who worked for his podiatrist got his jects of his bounty are and to appreciate power of attorney and moved him from his relationship to them (i.e., they are my his home without telling relatives where sons) and not whether in fact the testator to find him. This new housekeeper got appreciates his moral obligations and du- her lawyer to prepare a will that was ties toward such heirs in accordance with witnessed by her friends, who met the some standard fixed by society, the courts testator only once. They said that the tes- or psychiatrist^."^ tator was alert and stable when the bene- "The making of a will does not depend ficiarylcaretaker read the will to him and upon a sound body, but upon a sound that he seemed to understand it based on mind. By 'sound mind' is meant the abil- their single contact with him. ity of the testator to mentally understand The burden of proof is upon the person in a general way the nature and extent of who seeks to invalidate the will7 with two the property to be disposed of, and the exceptions: in the event a testator was testator's relation to those who would nat- adjudicated incompetent prior to signing urally claim a substantial benefit from the the will, then the burden of proof is upon will, as well as a general understanding of the proponents of the will signed during the practical effect of the will executed. incompetency8; and in cases of undue in- The fact that one is a user of narcotics fluence, the burden of proof is on the does not necessarily deprive him of tes- beneficiary. If a substantial beneficiary tamentary capacity."4 under a will occupies a confidential rela- "Mental capacity to make a will is de- tionship with the testator and is active in termined at the precise moment the will is the procurement of the contested will, the executed. A will made by an insane presumption of undue influence arises. person may be valid if made during a Active procurement means: (1) presence lucid inter~al."~However, there are ex- of the beneficiary at the execution of the ceptions to this rule.
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