Opinion ID: 735004
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 3 Because we are reviewing a grant of summary judgment for the defendants, we present the facts below as we are required to view them--in the light most favorable to Mr. Johnston. See Multistate Legal Studies, Inc. v. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Legal & Prof'l Publications, Inc., 63 F.3d 1540, 1545 (10th Cir.1995), cert. denied, 116 S.Ct. 702 (1996). 4 All three of the Johnston children were born and raised on a farm in Texas County, Oklahoma. Mr. Johnston, the eldest of the children, went to college at Oklahoma A & M and then went on to a career as a jet fighter pilot in the Air Force before retiring to Tampa, Florida in 1977. Ms. Goss attended college in Oklahoma for a year and then lived in various places in California, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico with her husband, a Baptist minister, before settling in Adams, Oklahoma in 1981. Ms. McPherson lives in Denver, Colorado. In addition to the farm in Texas County, family land holdings included 240 acres of farm land with mineral rights, which the children's mother inherited from her parents (the Jennings Place). Their mother passed away in 1978, and Father never remarried. 5 In 1983, Father executed a will (the 1983 Will) which would have provided each of his three children with essentially equal shares of his property. Father also began a four-year process of deeding specific portions of the Jennings Place to each child. 6 Father experienced health problems beginning at least in 1979. After Ms. Goss moved to Adams in 1981, she lived near Father and helped to care for him. She helped him recover from kidney surgery; after he had hip replacement surgery, she went places with him, assisted on the farm, and checked on him to make sure that he was okay. After he had knee replacement surgery, Ms. Goss stayed with him several hours a day, and after he was discovered to have heart trouble, she went to his house several times a week to help with the house, to do laundry, or to accompany him on visits to the doctor. For many years Ms. Goss made daily phone calls to Father, and Father called her at the beginning and end of each day. 7 Father gave Ms. Goss access to his checking account, and she frequently drew cash and paid some of her personal bills out of this account. Her son, Jack, leased Father's farmland on favorable terms and borrowed farming equipment and machinery free of charge from Father. 8 Ms. Goss knew a financial planner named Jess Murphy. Beginning in about 1990, Ms. Goss would occasionally see Murphy in the street and would tell him that Father needed to do some financial planning and that she would contact Murphy about it. In October 1992, Ms. Goss called Murphy and scheduled an appointment for her and Father. Ms. Goss brought Father to Murphy's office on October 22, 1992, and the three of them were present during a meeting in which the preparation of a trust was discussed. Murphy testified that the meeting lasted two hours and that the following exchange took place at the start of the meeting: 9 First I asked [Father] if he would desire to meet with me alone or whether he would prefer to have Mrs. Goss in the meeting with us. He asked her if she wanted to be there and Mrs. Goss said, That's up to you, Dad. And he said, Well it's fine with me if she's here. 10 Aplt's App. vol. I, at 266 (Deposition of Jess Murphy). After the meeting, Murphy sent Ms. Goss a letter which read: OCTOBER 28, 1992 MRS. DORTHA GOSS BOX 586 ADAMS, OK. 73901 DEAR DORTHA: 11 I VERY MUCH ENJOYED VISITING WITH YOU AND YOUR FATHER. YOUR FATHER IS AMAZINGLY SHARP FOR HIS AGE. 12 I'VE ENCLOSED A SUMMARY OF WHAT WE DISCUSSED AND AN OUTLINE OF THE TRUST. I VISITED WITH MIKE BORING BRIEFLY IN GENERIC TERMS AND HE STATED THAT THE FEES WOULD NOT RUN MORE THAN $1,500 AND WOULD PROBABLY BE LESS. 13 I'LL GIVE YOU A CALL IN A COUPLE OF DAYS TO SEE IF YOU WANT TO PROCEED. AGAIN, I ENJOYED THE VISIT AND LOOK FORWARD TO THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING OF FURTHER SERVICE TO YOU IN THE FUTURE. 14 SINCERELY, JESS MURPHY 15 Aplt's App. vol. I, at 275. Murphy attached to this letter a summary of the proposed Trust and a catalog of Father's assets based on information that was gathered by Ms. Goss and Father. 16 Murphy's day timer for November 1992 contains reminders that referred to Dortha Goss-Johnston and Dortha Goss and an entry for November 13th which reads Dortha Goss/Mr. Johnston. Murphy testified that he could not recall ever speaking to Father on the phone prior to the execution of the Trust and that he probably called Ms. Goss to tell her about his discussion with the lawyer, James M. Boring. 3 On November 13, 1992, Murphy, Ms. Goss and Father met again in Murphy's office, probably for less than an hour, to discuss Murphy's consultation about the Trust with Boring, and to schedule a date for the Trust closing. 17 On November 19, 1992, Ms. Goss accompanied Father to the office of attorney Boring for the Trust closing. Boring had not previously met Father and does not recall whether he ever spoke to Father on the phone before the closing. Boring had prepared a forty-five-page Trust based on a summary prepared by Murphy and conversations with Murphy. Murphy had also provided Boring with a copy of the 1983 Will. Boring testified that he went over the Trust with Father in the presence of Ms. Goss. Boring testified that Father wanted to skip Kenneth [Johnston] as a successor trustee. Aplt's App. vol. I, at 111 (Deposition of James M. Boring). Boring also testified that Father said he feared that Mr. Johnston would sell the property and that he did not want Mr. Johnston to be able to do so, but Boring did not recall why Father thought Mr. Johnston would sell the property. Boring further testified that Father had said he did not want any portion of the Trust to go to Mr. Johnston's heirs, but again did not recall Father indicating why that was so. Id. at 116. Finally, Boring testified that during the meeting, Father asked Ms. Goss for her opinion several times, and that each time Ms. Goss would answer, Dad, this is your property, it's your Trust. It's up to you. You do what you want to do. Id. at 121. 18 Boring was paid $1,500.00 by a check that was signed by Father but filled out by someone other than Father or Ms. Goss. Murphy was paid $500.00 by a check that was made out and signed by Ms. Goss. 19 The Trust contained significant changes as compared with the 1983 Will in the share of the estate that was to pass to Mr. Johnston and his heirs. Most significantly, while all three children were to share equally in the income from the Trust during Mr. Johnston's lifetime, upon Mr. Johnston's death the land and mineral rights were to be deeded to Ms. Goss and Ms. McPherson or their heirs. Mr. Johnston's children would receive no share of that property. Aplt's App. vol. I at 165-67 (The Ray Johnston Living Trust Agreement). 20 Ms. Goss and Father were named trustees, and Ms. McPherson and Jack Goss were to succeed them. Mr. Johnston would never become a trustee; instead, a corporate fiduciary was to succeed the named successor trustees. Id. at 152-54. In addition, Ms. Goss was to receive certain other property immediately upon Father's death.