MOTION TO SET ASIDE THE VERDICT AS NOT SUPPORTED BY LEGALLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE AND AS AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED, THE EVIDENCE DID NOT ALLOW THE CONCLUSION THAT THE WILL, WRITTEN BY DECEDENT’S CARETAKER THREE DAYS BEFORE DEATH, WAS DULY EXECUTED (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department determined the jury verdict finding the will offered by petitioner had been duly executed was not supported by legally sufficient evidence and was against the weight of the evidence. The will was handwritten by petitioner, not decedent, three days before his death. The decedent, who was terminally ill, had moved to petitioner’s family-type adult home only three weeks before his death. One attesting witness had worked at the home for 28 years. The other attesting witness had lived at the home for seven years and was petitioner’s friend:
A verdict may be set aside as unsupported by legally sufficient evidence where “there is simply no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could possibly lead rational [people] to the conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence presented at trial” … .. A jury verdict may be found to be against the weight of the evidence “where the proof so preponderated in favor of the unsuccessful party that the verdict could not have been reached on any fair interpretation of the evidence” … . * * *
Upon this record, we cannot find legally sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict finding that the will had been duly executed … . Further, the jury’s verdict is against the weight of the evidence, as it could not have been reached on a fair interpretation of the evidence … . Matter of Fraccaro, 2018 NY Slip Op 03198, Third Dept 5-3-18
TRUSTS AND ESTATES (MOTION TO SET ASIDE THE VERDICT AS NOT SUPPORTED BY LEGALLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE AND AS AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED, THE EVIDENCE DID NOT ALLOW THE CONCLUSION THAT THE WILL, WRITTEN BY DECEDENT’S CARETAKER THREE DAYS BEFORE DEATH, WAS DULY EXECUTED (THIRD DEPT))/WILLS (MOTION TO SET ASIDE THE VERDICT AS NOT SUPPORTED BY LEGALLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE AND AS AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED, THE EVIDENCE DID NOT ALLOW THE CONCLUSION THAT THE WILL, WRITTEN BY DECEDENT’S CARETAKER THREE DAYS BEFORE DEATH, WAS DULY EXECUTED (THIRD DEPT))/VERDICT, MOTION TO SET ASIDE (MOTION TO SET ASIDE THE VERDICT AS NOT SUPPORTED BY LEGALLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE AND AS AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED, THE EVIDENCE DID NOT ALLOW THE CONCLUSION THAT THE WILL, WRITTEN BY DECEDENT’S CARETAKER THREE DAYS BEFORE DEATH, WAS DULY EXECUTED (THIRD DEPT))