 |
|
|
 |
| Article
Search: |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Wright,
Ponsoldt & Lozeau,
Trial Attorneys, L.L.P.
1000 SE Monterey Commons Blvd., Suite 208
Stuart, Florida 34996
772-286-5566
|
|
 |
|
Last
Updated: Jun 19th, 2002 - 17:37:44
WPL, In the News
BATTLE OVER WILL ARRIVES IN COURT: WOMAN WHO TRIED TO BE ADOPTED BY DEAD UNCLE DEFENDS TRUST
By Melissa E. Holsman staff writer for the Stuart News
Apr 10, 2002, 5:00pm
|
Email this article
Printer friendly page
|
Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (FL)
April 10, 2002
Section: Local
Edition: Martin County
Page: B1
BATTLE OVER WILL ARRIVES IN COURT
WOMAN WHO TRIED TO BE ADOPTED BY DEAD UNCLE DEFENDS TRUST
Melissa E. Holsman staff writer
STUART - The Jensen Beach woman who recently lost a legal fight to have the courts recognize her adoption by a dead uncle was back in court Tuesday, vigorously disputing charges by the man's relatives she unduly influenced him to alter his will before he died.
Shirley DiPace, 58, is being sued by relatives of Joseph DiPace, 89, who died Nov. 18, 2000.
Several of Joseph DiPace's out-of-state relatives have contested changes he made to his will, which named Shirley DiPace as trustee and beneficiary of the bulk of his estate, worth about $1 million.
Before his death, Joseph DiPace initiated proceedings to adopt Shirley DiPace.
A non-jury trial, which is being heard by Martin County Circuit Judge Ben Bryan, began Tuesday.
"It's exhilarating. I never thought I'd be so happy to be in court," said Shirley DiPace, who knew Joseph DiPace for more than 33 years and saw him almost daily the last years of his life. "It's been a lot of hard work to get to this point."
In January, another judge ruled that when Joseph DiPace died, the proceedings he'd started to adopt Shirley DiPace, his niece through marriage, should have ended "because dead people can't adopt."
Tuesday's hearing was separate from the adoption case and focused solely on the terms of Joseph DiPace's trust and how its assets will be distributed. Had her adoption attempt been successful, Shirley DiPace would also be trustee and main beneficiary of Joseph DiPace's deceased wife's trust.
Together, the estates are worth more than $1 million.
The lawsuit argued Tuesday alleges, in part, that DiPace exerted "undue influence" over Joseph DiPace in convincing him to change his will and then improperly converted the funds to her own use. Joseph DiPace was a retired Union Carbide executive who lived in Jensen Beach.
When Shirley DiPace testified Tuesday, her attorney Ken Scherer of West Palm Beach asked whether she knew why Joseph DiPace wanted her to be the beneficiary of his estate.
"He said, 'this has more to do with what I don't want to do with my money than what I do want to do with it,'" said DiPace. "It's who I don't want to have it.
"He said 'they would not wipe oatmeal off my face if I needed it,'" she added.
"Who did you think he was referring to?" Scherer asked.
"Well, I can only think it would be the nieces, grandnieces and the nephews," DiPace answered.
Several of the DiPace relatives, who traveled from Ohio, New Jersey, and Georgia, were in the courtroom Tuesday.
Stuart attorney William Ponsoldt, hired last year by eight of Joseph DiPace's relatives, told the court that by acting as trustee, DiPace "converted the funds" and didn't disperse the money to relatives as it was outlined in Joseph DiPace's trust and the trust of his late wife Jeanette.
"She is not the trustee . . . and she spent the money for her own purposes," said Ponsoldt.
Ponsoldt said that after DiPace became the trustee, she spent more than $200,000 on things such as Cadillacs for her two children and to remodel her kitchen.
"All we are asking for is for you to make them whole . . . that they get the amount of money they would have gotten had Shirley DiPace not interfered," Ponsoldt told the court.
Scherer, in his opening remarks, held up a 2-pound box of Fralinger's Salt Water Taffy from Atlantic City, N.J. and told Judge Bryan that the bright green box, wrapped with white ribbon summarized their case.
"This box of taffy summarizes this case for a very good reason - Uncle Joe loved it," said Scherer. "And unfortunately for Uncle Joe, he was down here in Florida and he couldn't get it . . . However, James Flannigan, one of the plaintiffs . . . vacationed along the Jersey shore. That's where this came from.
"And Uncle Joe would call James Flannigan, his great nephew, and say, 'do me a favor and get me some salt water taffy and ship it down here. In 1992, James Flannigan did just that, he sent down a box of taffy for Uncle Joe."
Scherer said although DiPace again asked Flannigan to send more taffy, he never got another box.
"He never bothered to send it down to him . . . This is someone who is here today trying to get money from Uncle Joe - who didn't have the time to simply put postage on taffy and send it down to his uncle."
©
Copyright 2002 WPL Trial Attorneys L.L.P.
Top
of Page
|
|
