• 28
  • November
    2011

Just last week, the news (including this blog) was reporting that a copper heiress who had died had made a will leaving millions to her nurse. Well, that was true, but now it turns out that the heiress made another will just six weeks earlier that left quite a bit less to the nurse, and left millions to her relatives. Florida contested will attorneys noted that the second will, the one we discussed in the last blog post, had deliberately cut the relatives out.

The heiress had been living reclusively for decades, but relatives say that they were in contact with her by mail and by phone. Only in the months before the two wills were made was communication cut off by the heiress's lawyer and accountant. They say that they were carrying out the heiress's wishes. The relatives have accused the two men of being inheritance hijackers.

The heiress had two earlier wills, dating to 1926 and 1929, that left her fortune to her mother. The mother died in 1963, so if one of those 1920s wills is determined by the probate court to be the controlling will, the relatives will be the heirs.

The heiress did not draft another will until just months before her death earlier this year, at age 104.

Observers believe the relatives will have a hard time arguing that the will the heiress made in March, leaving money to them, is valid, but the one made in April, cutting them out, is invalid.

However, the same observers believe that the relatives probably have a strong claim of undue influence by the heiress's attorney, accountant and perhaps her nurse. The heiress was over 100 years old when she signed the two wills, and she apparently only had regular contact with the lawyer, accountant and nurse. The fact that those three benefitted so conspicuously from the second will calls into question the validity of the second will especially.

Source: MSNBC "A $400 million twist: Huguette Clark signed two wills, one to her family" Nov. 28, 2011