a true story about undue influence

This is a true story about undue influence. The most sinister kind, at least in my opinion, where an immediate family member takes advantage of the trust of a sick and dying parent for their own gain. In this case, the gain was financial and perhaps even contained a component of revenge. In this instance, a daughter took advantage of her position caring for her dying father in order to completely disinherit her brother.  Up until that moment in the Emergency Room, in accordance with his Last Will and Testament that stood for more than 12 years, his son was the sole heir to his Estate.  This story has some amazing features and events. Unfortunately, in the course attempting to correct this wrong I have come to learn it is all too common. 

Fast forward about 10 months to September where, at this time, she isn’t speaking to her father. Apparently, she borrowed $10,000 for payroll from him and she hadn’t returned it or even made the first payment. Worse, she was dodging his calls and not returning any of them. He was even sending snarky faxes to her office machine asking for progress payments. Let’s just say she was estranged from the family – again. 

Moving on to December, dad had been complaining about back pain for several months. Early December I received a call from a family friend who said “have you seen your father lately?”. “Yeah why”, I asked,” I speak with him practically every day”. He said “no, you need to see him in person”. I jumped in the car the next day and made the 2 ½ hour trip to see him. 

Dad knew something was wrong and he had went to an urgent care walk in on a prior occasion for an x-ray. We took the x-ray and went to see a GP Doctor. In about 5 minutes he looked at my father and said “looks like you’ve got cancer”. I went back to his home with him and cautiously asked him “if his affairs were in order”. He told me to go into his closet and grab his Will and Estate Documents and take them to an attorney for review. I scheduled an appointment for the next day with a Estate/Probate attorney I knew and didn’t even look at them.  

The attorney I went to reviewed the documents and said everything appears to be complete and in order and noted to me that I was named as the Personal Representative of the Estate. He paused and looked at me and said: Did you know, according to your father’s Will, you get everything? I said, what? He said you are the sole heir to all of his Personal and Real Property. I explained to him that, while a bit strange because I have a sister, my parents were divorced years ago and the “deal” was my sister got everything my Mom had and I got what Dad had. It wasn’t much mind you, he had thousands and thousands in debt. I returned back to my father’s house and told him everything appeared to be in order. I left the Will with the Attorney and returned home with the Healthcare Directive, Healthcare Proxy, and He said fine. I then asked him non-specifically if these were his wishes? He said yes. He tried to joke and said “make sure you throw me off the back of the gambling boat”. 

The next 2 weeks were spent with MRI’s, CT scans, Dr. visits, hospital stays, procedures, and his rapidly deteriorating health. Neither of us thought of calling "The Maid", AKA my sister until, out of the blue, she calls me and wants to know what’s going on. Seems she had received a call from that same family friend that called me about his physical condition. She flew down the following weekend to relieve me so I could return to Tampa for work. While he wasn’t pleased, he didn’t put up much of a fight.  

The next major event was a call I received to “get my ass down here – Family Meeting”. Aw crap, I thought. She read the Will. I went down there the next day to him sitting his silently while she did all the talking. “Where’s the Will she said?” “It’s with the Lawyer, I don’t have it”. Apparently, there was a copy in the strong box in his closet and she had read it. She was hell bent on getting her hands on it. All the while my father sat there silently and didn’t say a word. After a few minutes of her yelling at me, I hopped back in the truck and headed North. 

Over the next week I would call and try to speak with him and get updates from her on his treatment and his condition. I was told by her that everything was fine, status quo, and that there was no need for me to come down – she had everything handled. I would ask to speak with him and was always told he’s “in the bathroom” or “he’s sleeping right now”. When I didn’t get that I would just hear him yell some obscenity in the background and he would speak with me later. 

Fast forward to the following Thursday. I call and get nothing.  All I get is he’s really sick and things are bad. She tells me she has a call into the Dr. for what to do. She still won’t let me speak with him. 

The next morning, I get a call at 10AM. It my sister; “You need to get down here, he may not make it long enough for you to get here – I’ve called an ambulance to take him to the Hospital”.  I arrive to the hospital to be told he’s been transferred to Hospice just across the packing lot. I get there and wait with her while they get him a room, make an evaluation and get him settled. Meanwhile everything seems normal or as normal as it can be. Fast forward to 11PM that night where he passes with me and my best friend, who is a great friend of his as well, at his side. 

I stay at a hotel that night to spare any fight with my sister who is staying at his house. The next morning, I go by and see he and she tells me she plans to clean the place up, get rid of all of the food that could spoil. She said she would leave his car and lock the keys in the house for me to get later. I owned the car he drove and had the insurance on it as well. 

A couple of days later I ask a friend to go by and check on the place. He calls me and says: “Hey man, the key doesn’t work!”. The next day I schedule a POD to be dropped into the parking lot and pull a trailer down to remove some things. I am after all, the sole heir to all Real and Personal Property as well as the Personal Representative of the Estate, right! I arrive with my locksmith and rekey the place. Shortly thereafter the neighbors see me and say “you aren’t supposed to be here”. Really? So they call my Sister who is 12 hours away in NY. She proceeds to call the Sheriff and tries to have me arrested. So, by this time it’s about 6 PM, and while I am loading furniture and personal items into the POD and my trailer I see a man hiding in the bushes watching me. It was a bit strange, but I don’t think much of it. I also have the Security Guard watching me taking notes. The Sheriff deputies come to the door and see if there was any evidence of break in, if I had a key, and advise me I can take anything inside but I cant take anything that was part of the building itself (cabinets, appliances, etc.). I still at this point didn’t understand what was going on.  Later that night, I pack up and head back to Tampa.

Through a lot of investigation, deposition, and talking with others tangentially involved, here is what went down without my knowledge.   

A bit of background first about my sister, "The Maid": She is a trained paralegal who worked several years for a couple of law firms. As such, she knows her way around the system and knows several attorneys personally. 

During Deposition she was asked: What did you do when you found out your father didn’t leave you anything in his Will? “I went outside and made a phone call”. To Whom? “an attorney friend of mine”. You mean you didn’t ask you father why: “Nope”. You didn’t call you husband? “Nope”.

Come to find out she went to a local attorney with him in his wheelchair and asked him to draw up a Trust and Deed to put the house in. She was the only trustee and there were no successor trustees. This was done to keep any semblance of Homestead Protection so his creditors couldn’t attach to it. I also found out that she kept him isolated at home, without any Dr. Visits or medical care because there was a delay from the time of their meeting with the Attorney until the Trust and Deed was completed. Apparently, she kept calling and telling her Attorney my father wasn’t going to make it much longer. On the Friday he died, he called and said he was going to head up from Naples and he would meet them at the hospital; she called an ambulance and they agreed to meet in the Emergency Room. 

They did, in fact, meet up in the ER where they had him sign the documents with her standing on the foot of his bed and her Attorney notarizing his signature. I also found out from the EMS Report that as soon as they arrived, he waived his DNR – which they thought was strange because my sister said “Dad, tell them”. And he proceeds to revoke his DNR. 

I also found out it was this same Attorney that drove up from Naples to Ft. Myers, on a moment’s notice, to try and stop me from entering the house let along taking anything from it. He was the guy hiding in the bushes and letting with the deputies to try and have me arrested for trespass. No one will even convince me that he was my father’s Attorney and not hers, and they actually found him in the Phone Book. He represented her and filed claims against the Estate after he passed. So, you tell me, who’s Attorney was he? She knows Attorneys and I’m sure there was a connection somewhere, but I could never prove it.