Opinion ID: 4183805
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Carolyn Davis’s Declaration

Text: Carolyn Davis worked for seven or eight years in Lanier Waddell’s home as Ann Waddell’s caretaker. According to Davis, Lanier Waddell told her before he died that he was changing his life insurance beneficiary to Devin Waddell, that Lanier had hired an attorney, Tharpe, to do so, but that Tharpe “hadn’t done it.” Davis further stated that “[a] couple of weeks before he died, [she] heard [Lanier Waddell] talking to someone on the phone and telling them that he wanted to change the beneficiaries on his policies.” Davis saw Lanier sign the change-ofbeneficiary forms that Devin Waddell later submitted to MetLife. According to Davis: I saw [Lanier Waddell] filling them out, and a little while later that day I noticed they were on a table near the fax machine. [Lanier Waddell] was showing a lot of stress at that time . . . . I was not sure whether he had already sent the forms or not, so I asked him if he was going to send them and he said, “Yes, right now.” Then he picked them up and moved over toward the fax machine, which is how he usually sent papers like that. A few days later I saw the same papers sitting on a table again. . . . Because he was under so much stress, I wanted to be sure he 13 Case: 16-15321 Date Filed: 07/06/2017 Page: 14 of 20 hadn’t forgotten to send the papers, so I asked him if he has sent them and he said, “Yes.” Then I asked if he wanted me to put them in the mail and he said “I’ve got it” which I took to mean that he had done whatever was needed to get them to where they needed to go. Because I had seen him taking them to the fax machine, I got the impression he had faxed them. On the Thursday before he died, [while driving home together, Lanier Waddell told Davis that] “I’m going to call those insurance people and see if they got those papers.” I found [Lanier Waddell] dead in his home the following Monday morning when I arrived for work.