COLEGATE D. OWINGS' CASE.—1 BLAND. 371

incapable of judging of the propriety or effect of any deed or other

* matter which required consideration; and that she had
been in that condition some two or three days previous. 396
About four o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th, Dr. Marsh visited
the plaintiff and found her apparently asleep, but on being once
or twice called by the defendant, the plaintiff roused up, and gave
him her hand. The Doctor thinks she answered intelligently to
all the questions he asked her. But he declined to answer directly,
and say, whether or not she was then in a sound state of mind;
and says, that the questions he asked her were not of a nature for
him to judge of her sanity. On the next morning, the 16th, Dr.
Marsh and Dr. Griffith at nine o'clock, visited the plaintiff', and
found her in an apoplectic state, entirely insensible and unable to
speak or move; and requiring all the strength of one of them to
straighten her arm to bleed her.(o) After being bled she con-
tinued to be perfectly comatose, or absorbed in a preternatural

sleep, or stupor, until daybreak of the 17th, when she awoke; but
was still incoherent in her mind. After which she gradually re-
covered.

The instrument of writing, which was thus signed on the 15th
of June, 1824, had been prepared by Justice Feudal, as he states,
for and at the request of the defendant about six months previous:
but the defendant admits, in her answer, that she had caused it to
be prepared by him in 1822. During the greater part of the in-
terval between the periods of its preparation and execution, the
plaintiff had enjoyed her usual state of good health. About six
months before this instrument was executed, in a conversation
upon the subject of the provision which the plaintiff had promised,
or intended to make for the defendant, the plaintiff declared to
the defendant, that she would leave here no more than a life-
estate in her property. And the plaintiff often before and alter
made similar declarations. The defendant had always continued
to reside with the plaintiff, who had latterly confided the manage-
ment of her estate very much or altogether to the defendant, who
had always conducted herself toward the plaintiff' as a dutiful
daughter; and the plaintiff had great confidence in the defendant.

Upon the whole then, and after most careful investigation of
this case, thus far, there appears to be no one ground upon which
this deed can be permitted to stand. It was prepared at the sole
instance of the defendant. It was never at any time submitted to

* the consideration of the plaintiff', or in her possession for 397
an instant before its execution; and at that time, it was
neither read by or to her, or explained to her in any form what-
ever. Thoroughgood's Case, 2 Co. 9. It conveys to the defend-
(o) "A very apoplexy, lethargy, mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible "—Corio-
lanus, Act 4, a. 5.