Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Undue Influence

Jack S. Carey was a successful lawyer and former City Council member whose philanthropic activities earned him much respect.

But Carey's solid reputation is now in jeopardy after a judge decided recently that he inappropriately persuaded an elderly client to will him and his legal assistant more than $7 million of her estate.

Virginia Murphy retained Carey as her lawyer for almost 25 years. She suffered from several frailties in her later years, including senile dementia, cataracts, hearing loss, depression, hypertension and heart problems. She died in 2006 at the age of 107.

While in her 90s, Murphy executed a new will six times. Each time, Carey and his assistant, Gloria DuBois, were named as beneficiaries.

After Murphy's death, her second cousin protested the will.

In an Aug. 1 ruling, a Pinellas Circuit Judge wrote that she had never seen a case in which it was so apparent that someone had unduly influenced another person during the execution of a will.

4 comments:

  1. That's why they have a license - TO STEAL!

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  2. Thank you for posting this information.

    Carey, a former FBI agent before he became a lawyer had a plan, he thought he had the 7 million all wrapped up in a nice tidy package for himself and his conspirators.

    It appears he failed common sense and evidence gathering 101 when he boldly wrote incriminating evidence to prove himself and his conspirators guilty of targeting his wealthy childless client for profit.

    Agreement: "It was signed in 2002 by Carey, DuBois and Tornwall and their spouses. It says that no breach of fiduciary duty had occurred in regard to Murphy and that "should any of the parties have a mind to upset the grand plan, they should first check with the other two parties," Laughlin wrote."

    I hope the swindler who had a life of priviledge and power and his buddies find themselves in a prison cage until they are very old, feeble and vulnerable.

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  3. Any time a lawyer or a member of a lawyer's firm is named as a beneficiary, you can bet it's undue influence.

    The Bar needs to make this an ethics issue.

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  4. The thieves are really showing their true characters; they are getting bolder and bolder and greedier and greedier aren't they?

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