Reed v. Shipp

JONES, Justice.

This is an appeal by contestants (Lula Reed and Fannie Reed Simmons) from a judgment for proponents (Mary Shipp, Elsie Shipp Pate, Edna Shipp, and Elvis Shipp) in a will contest case. The trial Court directed the jury to render a verdict for the proponents.

We set out the trial Court’s entire oral instruction to the jury, including the colloquy between the Court and counsel for contestants:

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, when you were impaneled to try this case, each one of you had previously taken an oath to well and truly try the issues involved and a true verdict render…