At our law firm, we often hear from a family member concerned about someone taking advantage of a loved one, possibly even changing the terms of a will or trust. In some states, there are laws that say if a change is made to a will or trust that benefits a caregiver (which can be a family member caregiver), it is presumed to be under undue influence. The person who received the beneficial change can still overcome the presumption and show that the gift was freely and voluntarily made. These are challenging cases.
I recently read an article by James Fanelli in The Wall Street Journal that explored a court battle between the new wife and the adult children, fighting over a large estate.
I’m going to summarize this high-profile case.
David “Jim” Judelson had an impressive 57-year marriage with his wife, Maria. During that time, he had been president of Gulf & Western and built quite a fortune. They raised three children, Paul, Jeaneane, and Roy who lived a lavish lifestyle. Maria died in 2011, and Jim’s private banker Eva Gayer began receiving more and more gifts from him, while he suffered from Alzheimer’s and his memory declined.
Before long, Jim was spending all of his time with his private banker Eva whom he first met in the 1980s. Eva had a husband of her own, who had multiple run-ins with the law from 1989 to 2012.
In a letter to his children, Jim wrote, “I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions about how I wish to spend my remaining years, and I have chosen to spend them largely with Eva. I want Eva to be treated as my life partner and respected as the person with whom I share my home.” The kids didn’t buy it, and by 2015, someone called an investigator to look into Jim as a possible victim of elder abuse.
Jim was 86 at this point and taking medication to offset dementia symptoms. He was forgetful and had difficulty with simple tasks. At one point, his housekeeper even noticed bruises on his face and body, but he didn’t budge in his adoration for Eva. He asked his kids to sign an agreement that they wouldn’t contest the gifts he gave Eva while alive or dead, but they refused.
They thought Eva was behind all recent communication and the change in their relationship with their father. Roy even claimed that Eva said she would marry their father to get her way since they didn’t sign the agreement. She carried out that threat and married Jim just three weeks after divorcing her husband, with whom she still shared a home. Over the next few years, Eva became more controlling over Jim, and his relationship with his kids deteriorated.
He passed in 2018, and his will stated that much of his remaining assets would go to Eva. The will had been changed multiple times, and the kids alleged that Eva was behind it. Eva was also named as an executor of the estate. The court battle lasted six years, and the kids even started to turn against one another as it progressed. The kids alleged that Eva drained the estate of over $30 million dollars.
Eva presented evidence that Jim gave her a one-bedroom apartment in 2004 and an expensive watch in 2006, accompanied by a note that said, “I cannot think of a more appropriate way to demonstrate how much you have meant and mean to me.”
The court case ended in 2023, with very little left and Eva keeping most of it. Roy stated: “Even the most successful among us, including those who have reached the highest levels of success and achievement during their prime can succumb to elder abuse from predators who take advantage of them in their later years.”
This was a high-profile case, but we see similar scenarios happen much too frequently. A report AARP published in June 2023 on financial exploitation states that victims lose approximately $28.3 billion annually, with $20 billion of that total lost to someone the victim knows. Everyone needs more education on preventing financial abuse.