Counsel returning here from Clinton today regarded the result of the Pugh will case trial in Superior Court there as a tentative victory for Lloyd K. Wooten and J. Frank Wooten, brothers of this city seeking the bulk of the estate of the late James D. Pugh, eccentric aged bachelor who died in Sampson County some months ago. The Wootens are nephews of Mr. Pugh.
The jury found that Pugh, who was 82 years of age, was without sufficient mental capacity to make the will he left and a certain deed and instrument for the conveyance of notes and mortgages, executed in 1921. A question as to devices to Paul S. Herring, an attorney, by the will of the late Mr. Pugh being “obtained by fraud or undue influence” was answered “yes.” The last of nine issues regarding the conversion to his own use of $13,000 of the property of Pugh by Herring, was answered “yes.”
It was stated that the judgment would not be signed before the next term of court at Clinton. Certain exceptions regarding negro beneficiaries of Pugh were entered by the plaintiff’s counsel. These beneficiaries reside on the Pugh estate.
The trial was a hard-fought affair, with a number of prominent lawyers engaged. The speech during argument by Henry Faison of Clinton was declared one of the finest addresses in the Sixth District court in years.
Local counsel said the estate originally had a value of nearly $100,000, estimated. Decrease in values and the alleged loss of assets to a considerable sum has reduced the present value to about $55,000, it was estimated.
From the front page of the Kinston Free Press, March 28, 1923
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