In re Estate of Coffman

Petitioners contested the will of their deceased brother because he had executed a new will as he was dying from cancer that changed the disposition of his interests in a family business to the detriment of the petitioners. The petitioners alleged that the beneficiary of those changes had exerted undue influence over the decedent. Petitioners argued on appeal that the evidence supported a fiduciary-relationship presumption of undue influence. The Supreme Court noted that the undue influence analysis is a factual inquiry and held that while the execution of a power of attorney for property created a fiduciary duty as a matter of law, the circuit’s court’s determination that there was no undue influence was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. The Supreme Court also restated its “repudiation” of the debilitated-testator theory of presumptive undue influence. (THEIS, NEVILLE, OVERSTREET, HOLDER WHITE, CUNNINGHAM, and O’BRIEN, concurring)