Court Opinion

ID: 9516518
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:44:12.157046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:27.911344
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(concurring in result).
I agree that a confidential relationship existed between Stacy and his mother. As shown by the evidence, he was practically her alter ego in many respects. She even asked him his opinion of her will. The opinion states “Stacy left the (attorney’s) room shortly after Margie finished reading the will.” So how can one say he didn’t participate in the will? He also was the one who drove his mother to or suggested getting the “competency” statement from the doctor. Even though Stacy may not have had a disposition to exert undue influence for an improper purpose, he clearly prospered from the change in the wills — from equal treatment for all siblings to everything to him and zero for his sisters. Therefore, I cannot even agree with the statement in the opinion that “the will of March 4, 1993, did not show the effects of undue influence.” See Borsch, 353 N.W.2d at 349.
Although a confidential relationship clearly existed between Stacy and his mother, there is no evidence that he exerted undue influence upon her or that she was susceptible to undue influence, and the record is sufficient on this, so I would affirm the trial court’s ultimate decision for Stacy.