Manuel Goulart testified that he had known appellant since 1882, and in his opinion appellant was not competent to manage his property. In cross-examination he said however, "All the business that I have done has been with Mr. Coburn. I have leased some land from him. I leased land last year from him, and had my dealings with him direct. I found him able at that time to transact the business with me. . . . The business was transacted satisfactorily to both sides, that is, I leased some land, and we agreed upon the rental, and Mr. Coburn agreed upon the amount I should pay. I rented a ranch for cash rent, and another piece of land I had on shares."

Gehiel Coburn, a brother ten years younger than appellant, testified that in his opinion appellant was not competent to manage his business. It appeared, however, in cross-examination that the witness had sawed wood for appellant, but evidently the alleged incompetent was the one who could pay the unsuccessful witness for sawing wood. This witness admitted that he took part in trying to have a guardian appointed for appellant some nine years ago. He further testified: "I then testified that Mr. Coburn was incompetent. The result was that he was proven not incompetent. . . . So far as Mr. Loren Coburn's ability to get about is concerned he is about as active and spry now as he was eight or nine years He appears to be around. I only see him occasionally, you know. I notice no material difference so far as his being able to get about is concerned, only he goes a little lame more than he used to, bent over. . . . As to his habits of living, Mr. Coburn, I don't know that he dissipates. I don't think that he uses intoxicating liquors. . . . He does not use tobacco in any form. I think he leads a regular life so far as that is concerned. He has no bad habits of any kind that he needs the appointment of a guardian for."

This presents the substance of all the evidence offered by petitioner as to mental incompetency. There is nothing to show that appellant is incapable of taking care of himself. There is but the mere opinion of a few witnesses as to appellant being incompetent to take care of his property, and these opinions are worthless because not based upon any facts or

reasons.

On the other hand, appellant presented the evidence of many of his neighbors as to his mental and physical compe

tency. We have not space to give even a synopsis of that testimony, but that of James Moffitt, the cashier of the First National Bank of San Francisco, is a sample. Mr. Moffitt testified: "I know Loren Coburn of Pescadero; have known him seven or eight years. He is a patron of our bank. He has been such for approximately that time, a little more or less. I have known him in connection with the bank during that time, during which time I have frequently met him in business. I don't know his age exactly. I suppose generally he must be well over the seventy-year term, and he always struck me as a man of remarkable physical strength. I have had business relations with him concerning his affairs and his relations to the bank, and have had an opportunity during those business operations of forming an opinion as to whether he was mentally competent. My opinion with reference to his competency or otherwise, as the management of his own affairs is, that he is absolutely competent. I think he is as well competent to manage his own affairs and look after his side of the bargain as anyone I have come in contact with in the bank for the last ten or fifteen years—that is, that he can take care of his side of the bargain."

Dr. Robertson, a physician of standing and an alienist of experience, carefully examined appellant, and testified as to his health, both mental and physical, as follows: "Mr. Coburn, so far as I could judge, is an absolutely healthy man. ... I could hardly believe that a man eighty-two years old could have the apparent physical vigor that this man does. For instance, upon handing him a paper to read I found he didn't use glasses at all. I am barely turned fifty, and yet I find glasses an absolute necessity. I find his hearing in good condition; I found his heart in normal position and condition; I found no evidence of any change of circulation in the brain such as we expect to find in a man over fifty. As a matter of fact, in nothing that I examined, in no statement that he made to me, did I find anything other than a normal individual, either mentally or physically. . . . Mr. Coburn's whole life has been one of money, the acquisition of money, the handling of money and distribution of money; all in the world that he thinks of apparently-his one ambition in life is to acquire money, to hold property and to fight for what he believes is right. He has a keen sense of justice apparently—at least justice so far as it relates to him and other people. He told

me for instance, if he was deprived of his rights, and had to go to any guardian, and wanted a four-bit meal, and he handed him two bits, and told him to get a dinner with that -the old man held out his hands in horror, expressing absolute disgust."

The appellant took the stand in his own behalf, and there is nothing in his long examination that even tends to show mental incompetency. No one could read the testimony without being impressed with his keen grasp of business details. Part of his testimony is as follows: "I pay my bills-I deal altogether in cash-no long tails about it. If I go to a man in Pescadero and get anything from the grocery, $2.50, 'Here is your change, give me a receipt for it.' And if I have men working for me, I propose to pay them off every month, so as not to have any back arrangements, and if there is any entanglement or anything, we have to refer back only one month. I haven't got no partners; I ain't in any stock because I have got all the stock in my corporation myself. . . . Well, I go to bed from 8 to 9 o'clock; I have no chance-no use for this off to theaters and gambling places and taking a drink and having a great time. I never do anything of that kind. When I get through my work at night I go into my house. I have a fireplace, and build. a fire, sit down, warm my feet, rest myself up, and about 8 or 9 o'clock I go to bed; sometimes it over-runs that, when I have something quite particular to attend to, and I don't get to bed until 10 or 8 or 9, but as a general rule I go to bed about half-past 8 or 9, and get up in the morning from 6 to 7, and when I am up around I have something to attend to, and the folks that know me they know that I am out around attending to business."

His description of meeting Azro Coburn at the Jefferson Hotel in San Francisco is as follows: "He wanted me to go up and see him. I went up there and saw him a few minutes, and he commenced to talk about my property, and I thought that was queer about his talking about my property; I thought he had better take care of his own property at home, and I was competent to take care of my own property-to come about three thousand miles to take care of my property. I said, 'What is the matter with you?' 'Well,' he said, 'I will tell you, you are in litigation over some timber land here.' 'Well,' I said, 'what of it?' 'Well,' he said, 'don't you think

you had better seek a compromise and settle up?' 'Well," I said, 'I haven't got nothing to compromise.' 'Well,' he said, 'I think you had better; they may beat you,' and all that. I said, 'I don't know how they are going to beat me; they have no cause of action.'

We are fully aware that an appellate court will not reverse a finding if there is a substantial conflict in the evidence; but the evidence, in order to raise a conflict, must be such as to present a fair and reasonable ground for a difference of opinion. The finding or verdict must have meritorious support in the evidence. A few general statements without substantial reasons is not sufficient to raise a conflict. (Smith v. Belshaw, 89 Cal. 427, [26 Pac. 834]; Field v. Shorb, 99 Cal. 662, [34 Pac. 504].) In the latter case it was sought to have a gift of personal property set aside at the suit of an administrator, on the ground that the decedent, at the time of making the transfer, was of unsound mind, and the jury found that the mind of the decedent was sound up to within three days of the making of the transfer, and from that time on was unsound. The court held that the finding of the jury as to unsoundness of mind at the date of the transfer was without sufficient support in the evidence, and therefore set the verdict aside.

The court erred in allowing several witnesses to testify, under the objections and exceptions of appellant, as to their opinions as to "the ability of appellant to manage his property,' and "as to whether or not in their opinions he was likely to be imposed upon by designing parties." The opinions of the witnesses upon these questions and as to these matters were clearly inadmissible. The code provides (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1870, subd. 10) that evidence may be given upon the trial of the following facts: "The opinion of a subscribing witness to a writing, the validity of which is in dispute, respecting the mental sanity of the signer, and the opinion of an intimate acquaintance respecting the mental sanity of a person, the reason for the opinion being given"; and in such case the reasons upon which the opinion is based must be given, and the opinion itself can have no weight other than that which the reason brings to its support. (Estate of Dolbeer, 149 Cal. 227, [86 Pac. 695].)

The opinion as to the mental sanity of a person is one thing. Ilis opinion as to whether or not he is competent to properly

attend to his business, or whether he is likely to be imposed upon is quite another and different thing. (Shapter v. Pillar, 28 Colo. 209, [63 Pac. 302].) It was there said: "Applying these rules, it is manifest that the opinions of the witnesses regarding the incapability of the plaintiff in error to manage and control his own business affairs should have been excluded. Those who had seen and conversed with him could properly give their opinion on the question of his insanity, but the vital one, i. e., the degree of his mental incapacity in that account, and the extent to which he may have been incapacitated thereby from managing his business, the jury should have determined from all the evidence on the subject. It was not a question which required peculiar skill or knowledge to comprehend; it was one which men of ordinary, average intelligence, after being acquainted with the hallucinations, if any, of plaintiff in error, his acts and thoughts prompted thereby, could ascertain for themselves, based upon their own experience and observations."

In the Estate of Taylor, 92 Cal. 564, [28 Pac. 603], it was held that the opinion of a witness as to the capacity of a testator to make a will was not admissible, the court holding that such opinion was quite different from an opinion as to mental sanity.

The orders are reversed.

HALL, J.-I concur in the judgment, but am unable to agree with what is said in the opinion of the presiding justice as to the insufficiency of the evidence to support the finding that appellant "is incapable of taking care of himself and managing his property." The evidence upon this point is not as satisfactory as it might be, and if the members of this court were sitting as trial judges, it is quite possible, or even probable, that we would not have come to the same conclusion as to the ultimate facts as that arrived at by the trial court. But this is not the test applied in this court upon an appeal. If the findings attacked are supported by any substantial evidence, the findings of the trial court are conclusive upon this court.

I agree with what the presiding justice has said in regard to the action of the trial court in allowing witnesses to give their opinions as to whether or not appellant had the ability to manage his property. By this testimony witnesses were