Undue Influence?
This is a true story, from a court report. Donald “Doc” Traylor was a chiropractic doctor in Casper, Wyoming. He had one son and two grandchildren, but he was estranged from them. Doc last saw his grandchildren in 2007, and his final face-to-face meeting with his son, Chadwick, lasted for about an hour in 2007. The nature of subsequent contacts, if any, is not mentioned in the decision.
Doc retired in 2006. He divided his time between Casper and a home in Florida. He befriended his Florida neighbors, the Whites, and in 2019 he asked them for suggestions for his estate plan. They referred him to their lawyer, who had Doc execute a revocable trust. Chadwick and Shannon White were named as successor trustees, and the remainder beneficiaries were primarily Chadwick and his children.
In June the Whites drove Doc from Florida back to his Casper home. They enlisted a neighbor, the Greens, to help care for Doc’s dog and to visit him regularly. About this time, Doc became friends with a handyman, Mr. Dandurand. He drove Doc to Florida in October 2019, and flew to Florida to drive Doc back to Casper in June 2020.
Visiting Doc in August 2020, Mrs. Green discovered he had fallen and could not get up. A visit to the hospital revealed that Doc had prostate cancer. Upon his release Doc engaged Mel’s Helping Hands to provide 24/7 care as he recuperated, owned by Melody and Kevin Kraft. The service was satisfactory.
Doc decided his Florida estate plan was no longer satisfactory, and asked the Krafts for help in getting it revised. Among the changes in the Second Amended Trust, Kevin Kraft was named successor trustee for a $150,000 fee, Mr. Dandurand was left $200,000 and a 21.6% residual interest in the trust, and Mrs. Green was named trustee of a pet trust and also received a residual trust interest. The remainder interest for Chadwick and his children was reduced to 10.58% each.
One of the nurses at Mel’s Helping Hands became concerned that Doc was being exploited for his money. She resigned her position and filed a police report. A police investigation found no exploitation, that Doc was “very well taken care of, articulate, and aware of what he was doing and how his funds were being used.”
Doc died in August, 2021, leaving an estate worth $4 million. In January 2022 Chadwick filed a lawsuit against Kraft, the Greens, and Dandurand alleging undue influence, seeking to have the second trust set aside. After hearing the evidence, the lower court held that there had been no undue influence. What’s more, the second trust had included a very clear no-contest clause, which operated to remove Chadwick as a trust beneficiary because he had challenged the testamentary plan. Finally, the court ordered Chadwick to pay the defendant’s lawyer’s fees.
The lower court decision was affirmed on appeal.
It appears that although Chadwick lost his inheritance by challenging the trust, his children did not lose their trust interest.
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