Phillips's Estate

Opinion by

Me. Justice Simpson,

On the hearing of a petition for an issue devisavit vel non, contestants produced three of decedent’s attending physicians. They said she was suffering from paresis, and was not competent to make a will. On cross-examination they testified that, in their opinion, paresis can result only from syphilis; but did not say whether or not, in her case, it was inherited, or arose because of her personal actions, and if so, whether they were proper or improper. Assuming that the disclosure of the fact stated would tend to blacken her character, the trial judge ultimately…