Court Opinion

ID: 9917031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-11 15:05:30.769469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:54:51.437684
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE
                            APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
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                                                     SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
                                                     APPELLATE DIVISION
                                                     DOCKET NO. A-1772-21

IN THE MATTER OF
THE ESTATE OF
JAMES G. MARTIN,
deceased.
___________________

                Submitted December 13, 2023 – Decided January 11, 2024

                Before Judges Accurso and Vernoia.

                On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey,
                Chancery Division, Monmouth County, Docket No.
                P-000399-20.

                Buchan, Palo & Cardamone, LLC, attorneys for
                appellants James H. Martin, Michael P. Martin and
                Ann Martin (Stephanie Palo and David R. Cardamone,
                on the briefs).

                Drazin and Warshaw, PC, attorneys for respondent
                Therese Rogers (Ralph E. Polcari, on the brief).

PER CURIAM

       James H. Martin (Jimmy), Michael P. Martin (Mickey) and Ann P.

Martin appeal the Probate Part's January 27, 2022 order admitting the March

29, 2019 Will of the decedent, their father James G. Martin, to probate and
dismissing their complaint alleging undue influence by their sister, Therese

Rogers, the named executor and nearly sole beneficiary of the 2019 Will. 1 We

reverse.

      Although the parties disagree on almost every critical point, they do not

dispute the following facts, which provide the backdrop of this will contest.

The decedent and his first wife had six children, Jimmy, Mickey, Ann,

Thomas, Nora and Therese. Their mother died in 1991, and their father

married his second-wife, Louise, later that year. Neither Nora nor Therese got

along with Louise, and thus were estranged from their father for a significant

part of the twenty-seven years of his second marriage. A Will executed by the

decedent in 2017, the year before Louise's death, provided her a life estate in

decedent's home, with all related expenses to be paid by his estate during her

residence; left the contents to her outright; directed a $10,000 specific bequest

to Louise's daughter, the named executor; and divided the remainder, twenty

percent each to Jimmy, Mickey, Thomas and Ann, with the remaining twenty

1
  Because several of the parties share the same family name, we refer to them
by their given names for clarity and convenience, intending no disrespect. We
note that Thomas, although originally a plaintiff in the action, was no longer a
party at the time judgment was entered.
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                                        2
percent to be split between two grandchildren. The decedent specifically

directed that neither Nora nor Therese should receive any share of his estate.

        A month after Louise's death in October 2018, Jimmy contacted Barbara

Downs McNulty about preparing a new Will for his father, who was then

ninety-four years old. Neither the decedent nor Jimmy knew McNulty, who

had purchased the law practice of decedent's prior attorney. Jimmy took his

father to McNulty's office to discuss the provisions of a new Will, which was

executed two days later.

        The November 2018 Will contained a specific $10,000 bequest to Jimmy

for his assistance to the decedent "financially with the payment of my

mortgage and other bills during my lifetime"; and divided the remainder of the

estate, twenty-two-and-one-half percent each to Jimmy, Mickey, Thomas, and

Ann, with the remaining ten percent to Ann's son, Dutch, who, like the

decedent, had served in the military and was close to his grandfather. As with

his 2017 Will, the decedent did not provide for Nora and Therese in his 2018

Will.

        The parties do not dispute that Jimmy, a physician employed by the

Department of Veteran's Affairs in Chicago, had provided his father $10,000

for dental work, given him two Lincoln autos over the years and in August

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                                        3
2018, began depositing $400 a month into his father's bank account to assist

him in making monthly payments on a $100,000 home equity line of credit.

Jimmy also arranged for his father's home health care benefits through the VA,

including aides three or four days a week and the installation of a wheelchair

ramp. Jimmy also built a disabled shower unit for his father and arranged for

home visits by a physician assistant affiliated with the decedent's doctor.

      Shortly after executing his 2018 Will, the decedent suffered a fall and

was hospitalized until Christmas. Both Therese and Nora visited their father in

the hospital, the first either had seen him in years. On December 28, days after

the decedent returned home, Jimmy suggested to his father that he consider

adding Therese and Nora to his Will, treating them as he did the rest of his

children. The decedent agreed and Jimmy emailed McNulty at his father's

request that his father wanted Nora and Therese included in the Will, and that

Ann's share should go to her son, Dutch.

      Although Jimmy had been providing for his father's care with the

assistance of the VA nurses during Louise's last illness and after her death, his

father required round-the-clock care after his release from the hospital. Jimmy

asked his sisters for help. Therese volunteered to move in and care for their

father with Jimmy and Ann's help, while retaining the services of the VA nurse

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                                        4
aides. Jimmy instructed Therese how to provide their father his insulin

injections and maintain his catheter and also showed her how to care for the

pressure sores he'd acquired during his long hospital stay.

      The plan quickly went off the rails, however. After Jimmy returned

from a week in Chicago in mid-January 2019, he and his father had an

argument, with the decedent angrily telling Jimmy that he would never have

been a doctor if it wasn't for decedent. That same day, the decedent called

McNulty to say he wanted Jimmy removed from his Will because "he's a

crook." Two days later, Therese and Ann accused Jimmy to their father of

touching them inappropriately when they were children. Jimmy denied it, and

he claims Ann has since recanted the allegation, but Therese, who had

previously made Jimmy her daughter's godfather, continued to insist it was

true. Jimmy packed his things that afternoon and returned to Chicago, never

seeing or speaking to his father again.

      Within a week, the decedent had revoked Jimmy's power-of-attorney and

executed a new durable power making Therese his attorney-in-fact. McNulty's

notes of a meeting she had with the decedent at his home on January 18 reflect

the decedent's belief that Jimmy had "done questionable things" since decedent

had last met with McNulty, that the decedent "found out things" through

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                                          5
review of his Chase banking records, and that he believed "Jimmy will go to

Social Services to have [the] house taken away." The notes also reflect the

decedent's feeling that "Therese has done great/everything for [the decedent]

since Xmas. And Ann has helped."

      The decedent thereafter had conversations and meetings with McNulty

about a new Will. Although he never wavered about disinheriting Jimmy, he

was not sure about how to otherwise devise his assets. McNulty's notes from a

telephone call with the decedent on January 25 reflect he was still uncertain

about the distribution of his estate and needed more time to consider the

changes he wanted in his Will. He told McNulty he didn't want to give money

"to his daughter [Ann] because she was on SSD (Social Security disability),"

and that "Mickey can't accept [a bequest] because he owes the hospital"

money.

      McNulty's notes from a February 26 meeting state the decedent told her

"[h]e has a line of credit for $100k," which he had drawn down completely to

re-shingle the roof, repair the driveway, paint and buy a car for Louise. The

notes also reflect the decedent told McNulty that "Therese and her husband

will pay off the line of credit . . . when [the] house sells," that "Nora doesn't

want anything" so he would exclude her, that he is "very, very angry" at

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                                         6
Jimmy and doesn't "want to give him anything," that Mickey "owes Freehold

Hospital a lot of [money] so [he didn't] want to give him anything," and that

the decedent was "most concerned about Therese — as she [was] caring for

him" and "gave up a job to come here." Those notes end with the notation that

decedent "wasn't 100% sure what he wanted to do and he [would] call

[McNulty] next week with his decisions."

      McNulty received an email on March 1 from Therese with the re line:

"Jims will . . . again." The message states "You must think we are nuts. . . .

But we have it figured out . . . when ever you get a chance if you can call, or

come by. . . . I promise its going to be quick and easy. . . ." McNulty also

received a telephone message on March 6 from Thomas reporting "Family

came to a simple agreement re [the decedent]."

      The following day, Therese had a conference alone with McNulty in her

office. Therese provided McNulty a writing, which Theresa claimed was

dictated to her by her father, which left virtually his entire estate to her.

McNulty's notes reflect Therese's feeling "that Louise's kids bought houses

around the time her Dad took the $100,000 . . . loan out on [the house]," and

that her father wanted "to give Therese everything and $100 to each of his

[other] kids" and nothing to any of the grandkids because "[Jimmy] molested

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                                          7
Therese and Ann." McNulty's notes further reflect Therese's statement that

"[e]ach of [the decedent's] other kids (other than Tommy) own their own

houses outright and have their own [money]," whereas "Therese never had a

house" and "each of Therese's sisters had a wedding that Dad paid for, and Dad

didn't even come to Therese's wedding."

      McNulty's notes reflect a telephone conference with the decedent the

following day in which he confirmed he wanted to leave his house and all his

property to Therese "because Therese is taking very good care of [him]" and

would give the rest of his five children and his grandson Dutch $100 each.

McNulty wrote in her notes that the decedent "was very certain with what he

said above" and "repeated the above several times." Therese picked up the

final draft of the Will from McNulty's office on March 20, hand-delivering it

to her father for his review.

      The decedent executed the new Will on March 29, 2019, making specific

bequests of $100 each to Jimmy, Mickey, Thomas, Ann, Nora, and his

grandson Dutch, leaving the remainder of his estate to Therese, whom he also

named his executor.

      The matter was tried for two days before the Probate Part, with the court

hearing testimony from Jimmy, Mickey, Nora, Therese and McNulty.

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                                       8
Following receipt of the testimony and written summations, the judge put an

opinion on the record explaining his reasons for finding plaintiffs had not

sustained their burden of proof on their complaint to void the 2019 Will.

      The judge summarized the testimony to be that Jimmy, a medical doctor,

had taken care of his father a "great deal" and tried to help him by making

several "changes to the house in order to make his father more comfortable"

and had what was testified to as a "close relationship with his father." The

judge noted the allegations against Jimmy by Therese, which "Jimmy

vehemently denied," and the emotional falling out between Jimmy and his

father in January 2019 being so significant that Jimmy left, never to see or

speak to his father again, and that the decedent referred to Jimmy "at various

times in various communications" thereafter, particularly with McNulty, "as a

crook," who "didn't deserve to be his son."

      The judge focused his opinion almost exclusively on McNulty's

testimony, which was largely based on contemporaneous notes she'd made of

her meetings and phone conversations with the decedent and others. The judge

mentioned notes McNulty took of an unsolicited telephone conversation with a

lawyer on January 15, 2019, who claimed to be familiar with the decedent and

had drafted several wills for him. McNulty testified she wasn't sure why the

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                                       9
lawyer telephoned her, other than to provide her some background on the

family, the members of which "did not get along" according to him.

      The lawyer expressed the view that Jimmy, who in the lawyer's view

was "[t]he only one [of the decedent's children] that has the resources,

financial and otherwise, and the intellect to help" the decedent, had become

more involved in his care, and that "one of his daughters" was "living with

him" in his house. The lawyer told McNulty the decedent could be mercurial

and "gets fixed in his mind about . . . disinheriting." Most recently, the lawyer

said the decedent had telephoned him repeatedly, adamant that he wanted to

disinherit Jimmy, completely contrary to the 2018 Will, which the lawyer had

reviewed, over "a beef" between the two. The lawyer refused to prepare a new

will for the decedent, and suggested McNulty "get the true intention here."

The lawyer signed off saying he would call the decedent to tell him he had

spoken to McNulty.

      The judge laid out the timeline of events between McNulty's first contact

with Jimmy in November 2018 through the execution of the decedent's last

Will in March 2019, which the judge found reflected "a strong-willed

individual who maintained control over his assets and properties and appears

to have given substantial thought to his Will, what should happen to his

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                                      10
property and those thoughts frequently changed." The judge found the lawyer

who made the unsolicited call to McNulty "appears" to have had "a credible

and accurate" view of the "volatile dynamic" of this family.

      The judge found McNulty testified "credibly" about the "written note

and communication [she received] on March the 7th" and the phone

conversation she had the following day with the decedent "confirming that the

contents of the writing was what he wanted, not what someone else wanted.

And that it was his desire reflected in the written note." The judge found

McNulty testified "credibly and believably" that when she met with the

decedent on March 29th to execute his Will, "the decedent was lucid, in

control of his faculties and that he was making a decision based on what he

wanted and not under the influence of anyone, particularly not under the

influence of Therese." Finding "the evidence clear . . . that the Will executed

on March the 29th of 2019 [was] not the product of undue influence ," the

judge discharged the caveats and admitted the Will to probate to be

administered by Therese as the decedent's executor.

      Plaintiffs appeal, contending the Probate judge failed to engage in a

burden-shifting analysis in determining whether the decedent's Will was a

product of undue influence, that the judge erred "by appearing to rely on the

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                                      11
testimony of a single witness," McNulty, and failing to consider the testimony

of the other witnesses, and thus abused his discretion in determining the 2019

Will was not the product of undue influence. We agree on all points.

      Analysis of a claim of undue influence, that is "'mental, moral or

physical' exertion which has destroyed the 'free agency of a testator' by

preventing the testator 'from following the dictates of his own mind and will

and accepting instead the domination and influence of another,'" in the

disposition of his assets, Haynes v. First Nat'l State Bank, 87 N.J. 163, 176

(1981) (quoting In re Neuman, 133 N.J. Eq. 532, 534 (E. & A. 1943)), follows

a well-established paradigm. "The burden of establishing undue influence

rests with the party contesting the will," In re Estate of Folcher, 224 N.J. 496,

512 (2016), "unless the will benefits one who stood in a confidential

relationship to the testatrix and there are additional circumstances of a

suspicious character present which require explanation," In re Will of

Rittenhouse, 19 N.J. 376, 378-379 (1955). When there is a confidential

relationship, that is "where trust is reposed by reason of the testator's weakness

or dependence or where the parties occupied relations in which reliance is

naturally inspired or in fact exists," In re Estate of Hopper, 9 N.J. 280, 282

(1982), and suspicious circumstances, "which need only be slight," a

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                                       12
presumption of undue influence arises, and the burden of proof shifts to the

proponent of the will "to overcome the presumption," In re Estate of

Stockdale, 196 N.J. 275, 303 (2008), ordinarily by a preponderance of the

evidence, Haynes, 87 N.J. at 177-78.

      As the Supreme Court noted over fifteen years ago, "the burdens of

proof and the issues to be considered" in an undue influence case "have been

firmly established in our case law." Stockdale, 196 N.J. 275, 302. There is in

the Probate judge's opinion here, however, no discussion of this analytical

framework. Therese contends we can infer the judge applied a presumption of

undue influence by his statement that the decedent being "in an infirm state

physically," when he considered the beneficiary changes he ultimately made in

March 2019, a period in which he was being cared for by Therese, "certainly

gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that this will was the product of undue

influence."

      Those remarks, however, were made by the judge in explaining his

reasons for a fee award to plaintiffs, not the rejection of their undue influence

claim. Addressing the undue influence claim, the judge found plaintiffs had

failed to sustain their burden of proof, and their complaint was without merit.

Although we acknowledge it might be possible to make the inference Therese

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                                       13
urges, we are reluctant to do so as the court omitted entirely any discussion of

the role Therese played in the changes to her father's Will, and the cases make

clear "the mere existence of family ties does not create . . . a confidential

relationship." Estate of Ostlund v. Ostlund, 391 N.J. Super. 390, 401-

402 (App. Div. 2007) (quoting Vezzetti v. Shields, 22 N.J. Super. 397, 405

(App. Div. 1952)).

      It goes without saying that neither the parties nor a reviewing court

should have to guess at which side the judge assigned the burden of proof in an

undue influence case, given the profound effect it can have on the outcome.

See In re Week's Estate, 29 N.J. Super. 533, 540 (App. Div. 1954) (noting "[i]n

a case where the evidence raising up the presumption of undue influence

weighs heavily in the balance of proofs, the evidence upon which proponent

relies must, if he is to succeed, be of greater weight."). Here, our study of the

judge's decision leaves us genuinely uncertain whether the judge found

plaintiffs failed to muster sufficient evidence to give rise to a presumption of

undue influence or whether he found Therese had amassed sufficient evidence

to rebut it. We conclude the judge's factual findings are woefully inadequate

either way.

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                                       14
      It is axiomatic that "[t]he findings of the trial court on the issues of

testamentary capacity and undue influence, though not controlling, are entitled

to great weight since the trial court had the opportunity of seeing and hearing

the witnesses and forming an opinion as to the credibility of their testimony."

Gellert v. Livingston, 5 N.J. 65, 78 (1950). "An appellate court is bound by

the trial judge's determination of credibility and those findings of fact which

are reasonably supported by the record." C.B. Snyder Realty, Inc. v. BMW of

North America Inc., 233 N.J. Super. 65, 69 (App. Div. 1989). Where,

however, "the focus of the dispute is not on credibility but, rather, alleged

error in the trial judge's evaluation of the underlying facts and the implications

to be drawn" from those facts, "the appellate function broadens somewhat."

Ibid. That's the case here.

      We have no quarrel with the judge's finding that McNulty was a credible

witness, sincere in her belief that the decedent was not the victim of undue

influence in connection with the execution of his 2019 Will. But the judge

viewed her testimony uncritically, to the point of obscuring through his use of

the passive voice that the "written note and communication" McNulty

"received" on March 7 stating that the decedent was leaving virtually his entire

estate to Therese was a document written by Therese, which she hand-

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                                        15
delivered to McNulty when the two met alone to discuss the decedent's Will, a

fact one might think deserved more scrutiny. See Haynes, 87 N.J. at 179-80.

      The judge also failed to consider that McNulty had met and spoken with

the decedent only about a dozen times from their first meeting in November

2018 through execution of the decedent's Last Will in 2019. She did not

possess the advantage of assessing an elderly client in the way a lawyer who

had represented the client over many years or decades would have. McNulty

inherited the decedent as a client when she bought his former lawyer's practice.

And although the court focused in on the unsolicited call McNulty received

from a lawyer for a reason she could not work out, terming his assessment of

the decedent and the family dynamic "credible and accurate," we think the call

had greater meaning and a fairly obvious purpose.

      McNulty testified she "was a little surprised" by the call and "just wasn't

sure why [the lawyer] was calling" her. She concluded the lawyer "just

seemed to be telling me whatever was going on, kind of thing. That's how I

took it." McNulty's notes, however, reflect the lawyer provided his name, his

firm's name, and the nature of his practice. He told her he'd drafted several

wills for the decedent in the past and had reviewed the Will McNulty drafted

for him in 2018. The caller obviously knew the decedent and his family well,

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mentioning the recent dispute with Louise's children over payment of her

funeral expenses and the "beef" between Jimmy and his father.

      McNulty's notes reflect the lawyer told her the decedent had "been

calling [the lawyer] repeatedly" about wanting to "disinherit Jimmy → which

is totally contrary to his 11/2018 Will → why." Critically, the lawyer told

McNulty, and apparently the decedent, that he was unwilling to prepare a new

Will for the decedent. Besides expressing the view that Jimmy was the only

one of the decedent's children with the resources to help him and that Jimmy

had been more involved in his father's care, the lawyer also mentioned that one

of the decedent's daughters was living with decedent, and that "BDM (Barbara

Downs McNulty) [needed] to get the true intention here."

      Asked at trial what she understood after that call "needed to be done for

[her] client in revising his Will," McNulty answered "I don’t know, it says [the

lawyer] will call [the decedent]. I don't know if he ever did. I mean, I don't

know, I got the impression that he was just calling to sort of . . . . talk[] about

the family dynamics and disinheriting and, you know." Asked whether the

note "BDM to get the true intention here," was McNulty "indicating [she]

wanted to get the true intention, she replied "No, no, I just was writing down

what — what [the lawyer] was saying."

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                                        17
      We agree with the Probate judge that the purpose of the call was to

provide McNulty a sense of the volatile family dynamic. But it also appears

the lawyer was offering her a friendly word of caution about the things the

decedent would "get fixed in his mind" and to advise her to be sure she

understood before preparing the decedent's Will — a task the caller declined to

take on — what the decedent's "true intention" was in wishing to change the

Will he'd signed only two months before to disinherit the child who'd been

most involved in his care and, at least to the lawyer, appeared the only one

with the resources and intellect to assist him going forward.

      McNulty, however, never probed the decedent's reasons for the dramatic

changes he was making to his Will. She never asked the decedent why he

thought Jimmy was a crook, what the decedent had seen in the Chase banking

records that led him to believe Jimmy had mishandled his finances or done

"questionable things" or why he believed Jimmy intended to "go to Social

Services to have [the] house taken away." McNulty also never asked why the

decedent would disinherit Mickey over unpaid hospital bills, and who told him

Mickey had outstanding hospital bills. The trial judge never discussed those

questions in his opinion, notwithstanding the evidence at trial revealed no

irregularities in the decedent's finances, no evidence of any report to Social

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                                       18
Services and that Mickey, albeit hospitalized for a time in 2017, appears never

to have had outstanding medical bills.

        The trial judge didn't comment on that evidence or on the credibility of

any witness other than McNulty. Most significantly, the judge did not

comment on Therese's testimony or credibility, notwithstanding the many

instances in which her trial testimony was at odds with her answers to

interrogatories and her testimony at deposition. Most notably, Therese

claimed both in answers to interrogatories and in a certification she filed in

opposition to plaintiffs' application for an order to show cause that she never

discussed the contents of her father's 2019 Will with him and only learned

after it was signed that her father had made her the virtual sole beneficiary of

his estate. As Therese was forced to admit at trial, her averments were not

true.

        Therese also denied in her answers to interrogatories sending any texts

or email messages to anyone about the terms of the decedent's Will, statements

she was forced to retract at trial after being confronted with texts and email

exchanges with Ann and Thomas, some of which referenced "an agreement" as

to the terms of the Will. Therese was also forced to concede that she'd had

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several conversations with Ann, Nora and Thomas and their father about the

terms of the Will, notwithstanding her previous averments to the contrary.

      Prior to trial, Therese also denied, or didn't recall, the private meeting

she had with McNulty to discuss her father making her his sole beneficiary.

And although McNulty testified the decedent told her he had drawn down the

entire $100,000 line of credit for home renovations and a car for Louise,

McNulty's notes of that meeting state "Therese feels that Louise's kids bought

houses around the time her Dad took the $100,000 loan out on the house."

Therese testified her father directed her to say that, and he had her "look up"

whether Louise's children had purchased homes around the time he took out

that loan.

      Therese also testified she assisted her father in hiring a handwriting

expert around the time the 2019 Will was signed to determine whether Louise

"had been stealing money from him." Although Therese denied her father was

"becoming paranoid . . . about what was happening with his finances," she

claimed what "woke him up" was noticing "a lot of money in his account" after

Louise's death, at a time "when Jimmy was in charge of all [the decedent's]

banking." According to Therese, the decedent asked her "to get his old books,

and that's when we noticed" Louise "was writing checks every week, 750, 600,

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                                       20
lots and lots of money." Therese claimed the decedent confronted Louise's son

about her having "forged a lot of checks," and when Therese presented copies

"of the check, the receipt, whatever," to him at her father's request, Louise's

son told the decedent, "you need to ask Jimmy about that." As already noted,

there was no evidence presented at trial of any irregularities in the decedent's

finances.

      We express no view on the credibility of any of the witnesses or on the

testimony they offered. These cases are exquisitely fact-sensitive, and we

have long recognized that "[n]ot all influence is undue influence." Gellert, 5

N.J. at 73. We note only that reasoned fact finding requires the trier of fact to

weigh conflicting evidence, not ignore it or explain it away by refusing to

acknowledge its import for proof of a proposition or its defense. See Pioneer

Nat'l Title Ins. Co. v. Lucas, 155 N.J. Super. 332, 339 (App. Div. 1978)

(reversing findings in a bench trial based on the trial court's failure to

"properly evaluate significant evidence," resulting in "manifestly erroneous"

inferences from the evidence), aff'd, 78 N.J. 320 (1978). The Probate judge's

failure to address the significant conflicting evidence in this record, to make

credibility findings, and to "show his work" by explaining how he applied the

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                                        21
burden-shifting paradigm in this undue influence case, convince us the

judgment cannot stand.2 3

      We thus reverse the order admitting the Will to probate, reinstate the

complaint and remand for further proceedings consistent with the views

expressed herein. We do not retain jurisdiction.

      Reversed and remanded.

2
  We decline plaintiffs' request that we exercise original jurisdiction to bring
the matter to conclusion. "Appellate review . . . 'does not consist of weighing
evidence anew and making independent factual findings; rather, our function is
to determine whether there is adequate evidence to support the judgment
rendered' by the trial court." Allstate Ins. Co. v. Fisher, 408 N.J. Super. 289,
302 (App. Div. 2009) (quoting Cannuscio v. Claridge Hotel & Casino, 319
N.J. Super. 342, 347 (App. Div. 1999)).
3
 To best preserve for the parties the assurance of a fair and impartial hearing,
we direct the matter be heard by a different judge on remand. See P.T. v.
M.S., 325 N.J. Super. 193, 221 (App. Div. 1999).
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