State Supreme Court upholds judgment for plaintiff in undue influence case.

Byline: Eric T. Berkman

A trust beneficiary's claim that her sister unduly influenced their elderly mother into changing her estate plan to benefit herself should not have been barred by the doctrine of laches, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled.

The mother, Augusta Hathaway, deeded her home in the 1990s to a limited partnership in which she and two of her daughters were partners. She put her other assets in an inter vivos trust to be distributed to her daughters upon her death. She intended at the time for her estate to be split equally between the daughters.

A Superior Court jury later found that, in the early 2000s, while Hathaway was mentally and physically infirm, her younger daughter, defendant Marion Louttit, manipulated her into changing her estate plan, resulting in Louttit gaining sole interest in the limited partnership while becoming trustee of the inter vivos trust and ultimately obtaining almost all its assets.

Louttit argued on appeal that her sister, plaintiff Wenda Branson, while complaining about the changes at the time, slept on her rights by waiting eight years to challenge them in court. Accordingly, Louttit contended, she should have received a judgment as a matter of law under the laches doctrine.

But the Supreme Court disagreed.

"The thrust of her argument seems to be that, by delaying suit until after Ms. Hathaway's death, Branson deprived Louttit of the benefit of Ms. Hathaway's testimony," Justice Francis X. Flaherty wrote for the court. "However, there is no indication that Ms. Hathaway's testimony would have been favorable to Louttit and unfavorable to Branson and, as the trial justice noted, Louttit also had the opportunity to adjudicate the validity of the challenged instruments before Ms. Hathaway's death but chose not to do so."

The court also rejected Louttit's argument that she was entitled to judgment as a matter of law for lack of evidence that Hathaway lacked testamentary capacity at the time of the changes or that Louttit unduly influenced her.

The 28-page decision is Branson v. Louttit, Lawyers Weekly No. 60-084-19. The full text of the ruling can be found here.

David E. Maglio of Providence, who represented the defendant at trial and on appeal, said the jury's lack of understanding of the complicated estate planning issues in the case resulted in an injustice to his client, whom he described as a "devoted, loving daughter who took care of her mother in every way that a caring daughter should."

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