Judge rules new will invalid

March 11, 2012

GREENSBURG, La. (WTW) — A judge has awarded the estate of a Greensburg woman to a university foundation after he determined the woman’s heirs coerced her into changing her will just before she died, leaving them her estate.

The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/w9sROh) Judge Ernest G. Drake’s ruling invalidated an October 2010 will of Myra LaRue that left her estate to be divided equally among her sister and three of her nieces.

If the ruling stands, the estate will be distributed according to a March 2009 will, which left certificates of deposit to one of the nieces, the balance of LaRue’s checking account to a friend and the rest of her estate to the Southeastern Development Foundation, which is the fundraising arm of Southeastern Louisiana University.

The main asset in the estate is LaRue’s house and 11 acres in Greensburg, which has an assessed value of $380,000, according to documents from the St. Helena Parish Tax Assessor’s Office.

Drake sided with the Foundation’s contentions that Myra LaRue’s final will, signed just 13 days before she died in October 2010 was illegal due to LaRue’s diminished capacity resulting from cancer, according to a copy of the ruling.

“This Court believes that it has been shown by a clear and convincing standard that it is highly probable that the said will of Oct. 9, 2010, was the product of undue influence, fraud or distress,” Drake wrote in the ruling.

Mary Darouse Pardue, LaRue’s sister, said late Monday she was disappointed with the ruling.

“I am now 88 years old and for 16 months I have not even had the chance to grieve for my sister,” Pardue said. “We were very close all of our lives. This last year has destroyed my health.”

Once the judgment is formalized, the defendants will have seven days to ask for a new trial and 60 days to appeal, the attorneys said.

Attribution:

Judge rules new will invalid

Associated Press

February 28, 2012

Appleton Post-Crescent

http://www.postcrescent.com/usatoday/article/38681887?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs