In Re Estate Of Rei

825 So.2d 1 (2002)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D, a twenty-four-year-old man, made an uninvited appearance at the home of Mary Lea Reid, a seventy-eight-year-old widow. D claims that his motivation for the visit was his interest in antebellum homes and the fact that some of his relatives had sharecropped on Reid's farm in the 1920s and 1930s. D began law school at the University of Mississippi that fall, but continued to visit Reid and developed a strong relationship with her. D represents the nature of his relationship was that of mother and son, but evidence suggests otherwise. In March of 1982, D took Reid to see Judge Mike Carr, a chancellor in Lincoln County. This trip was instigated by D. Upon Judge Carr's recommendation that D and Reid see a lawyer, D took Reid to the law firm of Allen, Allen & Boutwell in Brookhaven, Mississippi. D said that he wanted to be adopted to cut off any potential heirs of Reid. Boutwell convinced D that it would not be necessary to go forward with the adoption. D then asked Boutwell to prepare a deed conveying Reid's property to D. The day after the deed was filed, D helped Reid compose a holographic will devising all of her property to him. In August of 1983, Reid once again visited Allen, Allen & Boutwell. On that occasion, she was represented by Emmett Allen. She was accompanied by D, but he did not participate in the discussion. Allen prepared a will for Reid and took every precaution to ensure that she was competent and no overreaching was involved. The chancellor found that there was undue influence and overreaching arising from 'antecedent circumstances' of which Reid's attorneys could not be aware. The attested will is essentially a duplicate of the holographic will. The chancellor found that Reid did not receive independent counsel. Also, the chancellor found that during this time D was acting as Reid's attorney on other matters. D wrote at least two letters in his capacity as an attorney on behalf of Reid. One letter was a reply to a man interested in buying the property, and another letter was sent to a long-time neighbor of Reid's warning him to stay off of the property. D also transferred Reid's power of attorney to himself in 1995. In 1986, Reid adopted D. Gary Honea, an attorney in Magnolia, Mississippi, handled this matter. The court set aside the will, adoption and warranty deed. It found that the deed and will were procured as a result of undue influence, overreaching, breach of a fiduciary relationship, breach of an attorney-client relationship, breach of a position of trust that D had gained with and over Mary Reid notwithstanding the fact that she was 'strong-willed.' D appealed.