Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances
A Connell Foley LLP client who is the sole named beneficiary in her deceased mother’s last will and testament will inherit all of the property in her mother’s multi-million-dollar estate as a result of a lawsuit filed by Tax & Estate Planning Group litigator and member Gregory Ein.
Greg initiated the suit against the decedent’s son after the son, whom the will specifically disinherited, had filed a caveat to prevent the Probate Part of New Jersey’s Superior Court from fulfilling his mother’s wishes.
The decedent’s son filed a counterclaim alleging—among other things—that the decedent did not possess the requisite capacity to amend her estate planning documents, and that Connell Foley’s client had exerted undue influence over the decedent.
To disprove the decedent’s son’s claims and prove the validity of the will, Greg deposed the will’s scrivener and the decedent’s financial planner, both of whom unequivocally testified that there was no undue influence exerted upon the decedent and that the decedent had the requisite capacity to make changes to her estate plan. The deponents further testified that the decedent had good reason to disinherit her son, who had financially exploited his parents for many years.
To expeditiously wrap up this matter, Greg filed a summary judgment motion, which the probate court granted. The court dismissed—with prejudice—all of the decedent’s son’s claims against Connell Foley’s client, and ordered that the decedent’s last will and testament be admitted to probate.