Estate of Johnson

Aurilla Johnson died at the Agnews State Hospital for the Insane on January 11, 1924, at the age of seventy-nine years. The public administrator of Santa Clara County offered for probate a document purporting to be her last will and testament, holographic in form. Emily W. Ewald, a niece of the deceased husband of the decedent, was named as the sole beneficiary. Aurilla Mabel Waller, an adopted daughter of the decedent and the respondent herein, was expressly omitted. The respondent contested the probate of the alleged will on the ground that the same was not entirely written, dated, and signed by the. hand of the decedent and that decedent was not of sound mind on the day of its alleged execution. The case was tried before a jury which returned a verdict as to each issue in favor of the contestant. From the judgment on the verdict this appeal is prosecuted by the proponent and by the sole beneficiary named therein.

The grounds of appeal are that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict on either of said issues and that the court erred in giving certain instructions and in admitting and excluding certain testimony.

On the issue of whether the alleged will was wholly…