Estate of Fletcher

This is an appeal from a judgment denying probate of a purported will.

Juliana Matilda Fletcher died June 13, 1955. Thereafter appellants filed in the superior court a purported will of decedent dated October 6, 1951, together with a petition for probate thereof.

The alleged will was a typewritten document purportedly bearing the signatures of the testatrix and two witnesses, the latter two signatures following a formal attestation clause.

Respondent filed a petition for contest of the will before probate and for grounds of contest alleged that at the time of the execution of the document the testatrix was not of sound and disposing mind; that the offered will was not signed by decedent or executed with the formalities required by law; and that at the time of the execution thereof decedent was acting under the undue influence of appellant William W. Loftus.

At the trial before a judge without a jury, appellants (proponents), through the testimony of William W. Loftus, offered proof of the due execution of the will, that is, that the will was signed by decedent and by two subscribing witnesses.

The signatures of the witnesses were not disputed. One of the witnesses was…