Caranci v. Howard

• Decision Date: 24 March 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-258-A,96-258-A
• Citation: 708 A.2d 1321
• Parties: Rudolph CARANCI v. Marion M. HOWARD, as Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth M. Philips. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 1321

708 A.2d 1321

Rudolph CARANCI v. Marion M. HOWARD, as Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth M. Philips.

No. 96-258-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

March 24, 1998.

Lauren E. Jones, John L. Quigley, Jr., Anthony Gallone, Providence, Mark A. Sjoberg, Warwick, for Plaintiff.

Russell Bramley, Warwick, Francis X. McMahon, Providence, for Defendant.

Before WEISBERGER, C.J., and LEDERBERG, FLANDERS and GOLDBERG, JJ.

OPINION

WEISBERGER, Chief Justice.

This case comes before us on appeal from a judgment entered in Superior Court granting the motion of the proponent, Rudolph Caranci (proponent or Caranci), for judgment as a matter of law, admitting the 1990 last will and testament of Elizabeth M. "Bessie" Phillips (decedent or Phillips) to probate over the claim of the contestant Marion M. Howard that said will had been procured through undue influence on the part of the proponent. The facts insofar as pertinent to the instant appeal are as follows.

The decedent was born in 1899 and lived, nearly her entire life on her family's farm in Glocester, Rhode Island. It is this farmland that became the fulcrum of the dispute between the parties to the instant action. After her father died in 1946, Phillips assumed the role of primary caretaker of the estate while living there with her mother and sister. Phillips never married, and when she died on June 26, 1991, she was survived by only her most distant relatives with whom she had had little contact during the course of her life. The evidence adduced at trial revealed that those closest to decedent throughout her long and healthy life were the small group of neighbors whose families lived near the Phillips homestead.

One such neighbor was contestant Marion M. Howard (contestant or Howard), whose parents owned the property directly across the street from the Phillips farm. Howard became friendly with Phillips when she was still a little girl and would tag along with Phillips as she went about her chores on the Phillips farm. The testimony of Howard and other witnesses confirmed the fact that contestant and decedent shared a very close relationship. As Howard explained, "I was like tied to her apron strings." Howard, many years Phillips's junior, maintained the relationship throughout Phillips's life, including the period of contestant's leaving home for college and cultivating a career away from her family's farm. In 1988 Phillips executed a will under which Howard was to have been the principal beneficiary.

Before Caranci entered decedent's life in earnest during the period of 1989-1990, Howard testified that she would regularly visit Phillips on weekends, sometimes taking meals or other neighborly gifts to Phillips. Phillips entrusted Howard with assisting her in the handling of some of her personal affairs. One such task involved the sale of a substantial portion of Phillips's property, specifically, sixty-eight acres located adjacent to the Howard property and just across the road from the farmhouse occupied by decedent. After Phillips's sister, Avis, passed away in 1988, Phillips approached contestant requesting her assistance in securing a buyer for the aforementioned acreage. Howard testified that on "many, many" occasions while Avis was still alive the two sisters had expressed their wish that the land remain undeveloped. As contestant testified, "They would like to see it stay the same as it always had been." Howard investigated the possibility of the land sale and eventually put Phillips in touch with a state senator, who in turn introduced Phillips to Robert Hutchins (Hutchins) of the Glocester Land Trust (Land Trust). Howard arranged a meeting among Phillips, the senator, and Hutchins at Phillips's home. After discussing the proposition of the sale of her land to the Land Trust, Phillips concluded that the idea of such a trust suited her and her late sister's wishes perfectly. Following the necessary legal prerequisites, the sale of the sixty-eight acres was set for a 1990 closing.

Caranci first met decedent in the fall of 1986. At that time Caranci was employed as the tax assessor for the town of North Providence. ¹ According to proponent, he and Phillips became friends after striking up a conversation one day when he stopped along the road by her property. They remained friends until the time of her death approximately five years later at the age of ninety-two.

In 1989 Caranci read an article in the Providence Journal concerning Phillips's impending sale to the Land Trust. Thereafter, proponent broached the issue of the Land Trust land sale with Phillips and increased the frequency with which he paid visits to her home. Caranci testified that he informed Phillips that if the Land Trust sale did not come to fruition, he could help her sell the parcel to some of his acquaintances who might be interested in developing the land.

By the summer of 1990 Phillips was growing anxious about the land sale. Caranci testified that Phillips, "knowing [of his] background in real estate," sought his advice on how to expedite the process. According to Caranci, Phillips told him that "her time was running out and she had things she wanted to do." Caranci advised Phillips to have her lawyer give the Land Trust an ultimatum that if the sale was not completed by a certain deadline, she would "take the land away from them."

Howard testified that Phillips's demeanor toward her changed dramatically during this period. Phillips confronted contestant, wanting to know why the sale was not closing and threatening that if the sale was not completed by the end of August, she would sell the property to Caranci. In addition Phillips directed Howard to close the bank account the two of them had held jointly for several years.

Howard, who stood to gain nothing by the sale, was understandably distressed over Phillips's sudden change. Notwithstanding her distress, Howard pursued the matter on Phillips's behalf. Upon learning that the closing of the land sale would take place prior to the end of August 1990, she so informed Phillips. After the sale was completed, on August 29, 1990, decedent's longtime attorney delivered the proceeds of the sale in the form of a check to Phillips at her home. Caranci deposited the check into a joint bank account in his and decedent's name.

Several days thereafter, Phillips's attorney received from Caranci a call discharging him. In turn the attorney contacted Phillips to inquire if Caranci's notification of discharge was a true representation of her wishes. Phillips confirmed that she would no longer require his services, explaining that Caranci had advised her to terminate their relationship because the attorney was a divorced man and thus could not be trusted.

Immediately following the dismissal of decedent's attorney, Caranci called on his long-time acquaintance, also an attorney (Caranci's attorney), advising him that Phillips desired his services to draft a new will under which Caranci would be the sole beneficiary. The attorney testified that Caranci's request gave him pause for several reasons: first, he had never even met decedent whereas he had been a business colleague of Caranci's for many years and had previously received "quite a few" client referrals from Caranci; second, and perhaps more importantly, Phillips was leaving essentially her entire estate to Caranci, with whom she had merely been acquainted for a relatively short period. Nevertheless, on September 12, 1990, the attorney traveled to Phillips's home to meet with her to discuss the terms of the will. Upon arriving at Phillips's home, he was greeted by Caranci. After ushering the attorney into the house, Caranci left decedent and his lawyer alone. The attorney testified that he did not disclose to Phillips, in any detail, his long-term relationship with Caranci.

Caranci's attorney drafted the will leaving Phillips's property subject to testamentary disposition to Caranci; the bulk of the remainder of her property would pass to him by virtue of the joint-survivorship bank account. On September 19, 1990, he delivered the will to Phillips, and she executed it. Caranci's attorney served as one of the two necessary witnesses to the execution of the will; the other witness was Caranci's nephew, John W. Lynch.

Bessie Phillips passed away in June 1991. The proponent presented the 1990 will to the Glocester Probate Court for admission to probate. Howard contested the will, claiming that it had been procured through undue influence practiced upon decedent by Caranci. Following a hearing thereon, the court refused to accept the 1990 will, finding that its execution was the result of undue influence on the part of proponent. Howard then petitioned the Probate Court to admit the 1988 will to probate. The Probate Court granted the petition and named Howard executrix. Caranci appealed these decisions to the Superior Court. A jury trial was held in Superior Court in 1996. After both sides presented evidence, Caranci moved for judgment as a matter of law. ² The trial justice removed the case from consideration by the jury, concluding, as she must have under the applicable standard for such a motion, that there was insufficient evidence of undue influence to warrant a reasonable jury's finding in favor of contestant.

The contestant raises two issues before us that she contends warrant reversal of the Superior Court judgment entered against her. First, Howard contends that the trial justice erred in excluding evidence she sought to place before the jury. Second, contestant claims that the trial justice committed error under the facts of this case, in granting proponent's motion for judgment as a matter of law. We shall address each issue separately. Such additional facts as may be necessary to our discussion of the issues will be supplied.

Applicable Law

Undue influence may be simply defined as the substitution of the will of a third party for the free...