Can a Husband or Wife Exert Undue Influence on Someone Who Makes a Will?

Marriage, and the relationship between a husband and a wife, is one that seems to make it difficult to prove that a decedent’s free will was altered by the undue influence exerted by his or her spouse.

On the one hand, undue influence is shown when someone exerts so much pressure or authority over the decedent (the deceased who made the will), or someone else uses such duress or force or authority over the person making the will, that the person making the will effectively was not acting with his or her own independent thought or decision-making, when creating the will.

On the other hand, the relationship between a husband and wife is, naturally, one of influence; we expect and welcome the fact that our spouse will assist us in life’s decisions, and that our spouse will exert a large degree of influence over our decision-making; many of us want this dynamic in our marriages.

When Beneficiaries Cry Foul

So, when a beneficiary thinks that a husband or wife has exerted too much influence over the deceased spouse, and when a beneficiary seeks to challenge a will on this basis, he or she has a big hurdle to overcome.

Where is the line between the natural influence that a husband or wife is expected to have over the other spouse, and exerting so much influence, that the will really is just a product of too much influence?

Newer Marriages

Often, challenges to wills and other estate documents that involve allegations that spouses have gone too far, happen when spouses are newly married at the time of death.

For example, take a husband or wife who are married for just 6 months, and in those six months, the husband amends his will, leaves all of his property to his new wife, and then dies, perhaps of a disease that could have affected his decision making.

Or, imagine a very young person marrying a very old person, and the old person changes his or her will shortly after the marriage.

These are often the situations that lead to beneficiaries (often children of the deceased, who see their inheritance as “taken” by the new spouse) challenging the surviving spouse’s good fortune from the inheritance.

Are These Cases Different?

Legally, undue influence cases involving spouses are no different than any other kind of undue influence case. It’s just that the undue influence factors are harder to prove, given the marital relationship.

Aggrieved survivors who think the surviving spouse exerted undue influence, still need to show that the deceased’s decisions with regard to the will were not made of the deceased’s own free will and volition; it isn’t enough that beneficiaries just don’t like what the deceased decided, and the mere fact that a marriage may have been short term before the death, won’t prove undue influence by itself.

Evidence of Undue Influence

There are cases where a deceased may have developed an illness, or may have acted erratically, or may have been vulnerable to scams or influence from others outside the marriage, around the time of altering or changing a will, which could be an external factor that may assist beneficiaries in showing that a will was a product of undue influence.

It’s a higher burden, but it can be shown. It’s really determined on a case by case basis. Do you have a will contest?  Call the West Palm Beach probate lawyers at The Law Offices of Larry E. Bray today for help.

Sources:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8326560970754118917&q=Demetra+&hl=en&as_sdt=4,167&as_ylo=2015

scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Tarsagian+v.+Watt%2C&btnG=&as_sdt=6%2C44