The critical factors that were identified by the court concerning undue influence and fraud
in this case were:
Uncovering Ralphs's mental health and if he was truly mentally capable to make
decisions: There were conflicting notes by doctors about his mental capacity.
However, at the time of signing the will the note indicated he was able to make his
own decisions.
Undue Influence: Kathy was protesting that Darrell and Cora were taking
advantage of Ralph to decide to sign his assets over to them. This appeared to be a
family battle that came to the court.$
It’s hard to say exactly my opinion on how far courts should go. I personally think it’s
very important to protect our elderly or those that may be mentally incapacitated to make
valid decisions for themselves. At the same point, I think that families can also build up
situations and in this case, Darrell and Cora were his closest members of the family at this
point, it also appeared that they visited him the most so if that was his choice it should be
honored. I would be interested to see more cases like this and the decisions that are made
as well as learn more about the laws that protect our elderly.
I look forward to reading your discussion posts and thoughts!
Abbey Riel
References
Kubasek, K., N., Browne, M, N. Dhooge, J., L., Herron, J., D., Barkacs, L., L. (2017).
Dynamic Business Law fourth edition. McGraw-Hill. New York, New York.
