Estate of Wineteer

A contest was instituted over the admission to probate of the will of Elizabeth A. Wineteer, deceased. The sole ground of contest pressed at the trial was that the deceased “was not of sound and disposing mind, but was on the contrary of unsound mind and insane and mentally incompetent to make a will.” At the trial of this contest evidence, oral and documentary, was introduced, the documentary evidence consisting of depositions, many in number. Of these a large proportion were the views of intimate acquaintances respecting the mental sanity of the deceased, accompanying which views the reasons for the opinions must be given. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1870, subd. 10.) A time came in the reading of these depositions when the court of its own motion interposed and set a limit to the further introduction of such testimony. Its ruling in so doing is the prin cipal error presented upon this appeal, which follows the findings and determination of the court that the will was the product of an unsound mind.

Herein it becomes of consequence to consider the record. It is as follows: The court declared: “I have frequently limited the number of witnesses who would be permitted to testify upon a…