Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1919 — SEEK TO BREAK WILL [ARTICLE]

SEEK TO BREAK WILL

RELATIVES DECLARE INVALID WILL OF LATE SARAH KENNEDY, OF MOROCCO. • Through their attorney, John A. Dunlap, relatives of the late Sarah A. Kennedy, of Morocco, today filed in the Newton circuit court a complaint seeking to set aside the will of Mrs. Kennedy, declaring that said will is invalid and that she was unduly influenced by two of her daughters, who are named as defendants, through their having received the greater benefit by the will. t The plaintiffs in the case are: Samuel Kennedy, Earl Kennedy, Kinder Kennedy, Ruby Hunter, Grace Hunter, Bertha Whaley and Emmett Ellis Kennedy, through his next friend, Luther Brunton. Those named as defendants are: Nellie Cbizum Kennedy and Frieda Kennedy. The plaintiffs in their complaint allege that the defendants did corruptly contrive, through continuous and persistent persuasion and importunities, and did thereby gain an overpowering influence over Mrs. Kennedy, which they exercised at the time the will was made. The plaintiffs further seek to show that at the time the will was made that Mrs. Kennedy was of unsound mind and in such an enfeebled condition that the will as drawn up was unduly executed. It is said that Mrs. Kennedy bequeathed to the defendants valuable real estate, her household effects, the profits from the sale of the grains, the farm stock and machinery to an amount far in excess of what they were legally entitled to. The complainants further allege that Frieda Kennedy took advantage of her mother’s enfeebled condition and thereby influenced the latter to name her as executrix of the will; also that she obtained money from her mother for her personal use which wds derived from the sale of grains and stock during the several months prior to the death of the testatrix. Mrs. Kennedy was a lady of great wealth and it is expected that the case, which will come to trial in October, will parallel that of the one which followed the death of her husband several years ago, and at which time the same relatives sought, with success, to have his will set aside as invalid.