Spruance v. Northway

Alta L. Kerr had five children. One of Alta’s children, Aileen Kerr Northway, died in 1925, three days after giving birth to her son, William Northway, Jr. (plaintiff), so Alta raised William. In 1953 Alta executed a will devising her estate to William and Alta’s four living children, L. A. Kerr Jr., Genevieve Kerr Spruance, Armstrong Kerr, and Charles Kerr (collectively, the Kerr children) (defendants) in five equal shares. Over the next two decades, Alta executed a few codicils with only minor changes to the will. In 1971 Alta executed another will with essentially the same terms as the 1953 will, dividing most of her estate between William and the Kerr children. In 1974 Alta, then 99 years old, suffered a stroke, causing her to become agitated and confused and to need hospitalization. Alta experienced a total personality change. Alta blamed William for putting her in the hospital, believing that he was trying to get property from her. Alta executed a new will giving William less than 2 percent of the residuary of her estate. After Alta’s death, the Kerr children filed the 1974 will, and William contested the will. William claimed that Alta lacked testamentary capacity when she executed the 1974 will because she was suffering from an insane delusion. During trial, Spruance testified that Alta needed to be in the hospital, William would not have harmed Alta, and William had done nothing to cause Alta’s fears. Dr. Chittenden, a neuropsychiatrist, testified that Alta’s stroke had caused her to become delusional with respect to her relationship with William only, though Alta could otherwise understand her property and the objects of her bounty. The judge instructed the jury that if Alta was operating under an insane delusion that influenced Alta to execute her will in a way that she would not have otherwise, then Alta lacked testamentary capacity. The judge further instructed the jury that an insane delusion, unlike a mistaken belief, has no reasonable basis in fact. The jury found that Alta lacked testamentary capacity, and the Kerr children appealed, arguing in part that the judge’s instructions were incorrect.