MARIYADAS Vs. BENJAMIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Plaintiffs are the appellants. The appeal is directed against the judgment and decree dated 30-6-2003 in O.S. No. 8/2002 on the file of the II Additional District Court, Ernakulam. The said case was originally filed as L.A. (OP) No. 12/1999 and converted as a suit and re-numbered as O.S. No. 8/2002. The suit was filed praying to grant letters of administration of the Will. The court below by the impugned judgment held that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the Will was a genuine Will executed by Eliswa fully knowing the contents of the document and knowing the impact of her act of executing such a document over her interest on her properties. The court below dismissed the suit Aggrieved by the dismissal of the suit, the plaintiffs have preferred the present appeal. Parties are hereinafter referred to as arrayed in the suit.

(2.) The 2nd plaintiff and the 1st defendant are the two sons of the deceased Eliswa. Defendants 2 and 3 are her daughters. The 1st plaintiff at the time institution of the O.P. was a minor. He is the son of the 2nd plaintiff. Eliswa died on 20-7-1998. The plaint schedule property belonged to deceased Eliswa. Eliswa executed the Will on 18-12-1995 as her last Will. As per the said Will, plaint schedule property was bequeathed in favour of her grandson, who is the 1st plaintiff and son of the 2nd plaintiff. The 1st defendant contested the suit. He contended that the alleged Will is not a genuine Will, that late Eliswa had earlier executed her last Will in the year 1988, that Eliswa was laid up from the year 1994 up to her death and that she was not in a position to execute the Will or to do her day-to-day affairs. It is also contended that the Will was executed by exercising coercion, misrepresentation and undue influence. It is further contended that the Will was executed without knowing the contents of the document and is a forged one.

(3.) Plaintiffs examined P.Ws. 1 to 4. P.W. 1 is the 2nd plaintiff, P.W. 2 is the advocate who drafted the Will, P.W. 3 is the attesting witness. Exts. A-1 to A-3 are the documents produced by the plaintiffs. The 1st defendant was examined as D.W. 1 and Exts. B-1 to B-6 were marked on his side. The court below examined the question as to whether the Will dated 18-12-1995 marked as Ext. A-3 is genuine or not. The court after appreciating the evidence stated the reasons in paragraph 13 to 18 to find that the plaintiffs failed to remove the suspicious circumstance seen in execution and registration of the Will.