As noted, whether a testator has the requisite capacity must be determined by consideration of external acts. One case illustrating the bias against finding a lack of capacity is Sellers v. Qualls, 206 Md. 58, 66 (1954). In that case, the court stressed that there is no extraordinary mental capacity for making a will required by the law. Mere eccentricity is not enough to void a will and the eccentricities evident in the Sellers case did not rise to a level of incapacity. These eccentricities were described by the court in detail:
“…the effects of diseases (diabetes) from which she suffered; her rather frequent falls both indoors and outside, her rummaging through a garbage dump, which she permitted to be established on her place (and on which she sometimes fell), and eating moldy bread and other food which she retrieved from it; once eating food which she had vomited; eating food given her by hucksters for her chickens; eating large quantities of cheese, liverwurst, braunschweiger or bacon, regardless of dietary restrictions; licking her plate; making unfounded accusations of theft against a tenant, against her sister, Mrs. Sellers, and against others; hitting Mrs. Sellers with a saucer at some unspecified date in 1950; making unfounded allegations of attempts to poison her; hiding money in odd places; laughing, crying or talking to herself and seeming nervous or upset; and on one occasion wanting to put roomers out of her house and then letting them return almost immediately.”
Sellers, 206 Md. at 64. The court concluded that her eating habits were “an odd and extreme form of miserliness; but miserliness is not necessarily the hallmark of insanity, and is more likely to indicate the reverse.” Id. at 65-66. The Sellers case and others show that it is difficult to attack capacity without expert testimony and it is likely that such expert testimony must be provided by someone who examined the testator. Sellers illustrates the presumption under the law that every person is sane and has the capacity to make a valid will. The burden is on the caveators to show lack of such capacity. See Ingalls v. Mount Oak Methodist Church Cemetery, 244 Md. 243, 260 (1966).
