Steere v. Steere
| Decision Date | 16 December 2020 |
| Docket Number | Docket: 2018-44 |
| Parties | GLORIA J. STEERE v. LYLE STEERE AND ANOTHER |
| Court | Massachusetts Superior Court |
Dates: December 16, 2020
Present: Paul D. Wilson Justice of the Superior Court
County: DUKES, ss.
In 2016, Defendants Lyle Steere and his wife Aurelie Cordier-Steere purchased the home of Lyle’s 84-year-old aunt Gloria Steere. All three of these parties3 understood that Gloria would continue to reside in that home, although they testified to different understandings about the duration of her expected residency. Approximately two years later, in 2018, Lyle and Aurelie began the process of evicting Gloria from the home. This prompted another of Gloria’s nephews, Jesse Steere, III, to apply to the Probate and Family Court to appoint him as Gloria’s conservator. Armed with that appointment, Jesse filed this lawsuit, and obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting the eviction.
The case ultimately reached trial in October 2020. The parties tried three claims: fraud, undue influence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
I presided over a non-jury trial that spanned five days between October 6, 2020 and October 16, 2020. Seven fact witnesses testified: Gloria and her conservator Jesse; Lyle and Aurelie; Gloria’s brother David; and two persons whose jobs bring them into contact with elderly persons on Martha’s Vineyard, Rose Cogliano and Nancy Langman. In addition to these fact witnesses, I heard from two expert witnesses, Dr. Barry Fogel and Dr. Julia Reade.4 The parties introduced 61 exhibits, some of them consisting of many separate documents.
Based on all the credible evidence presented at trial, and all the reasonable inferences drawn from that evidence, I find the following facts.
In the 1950s, Gloria’s future husband purchased undeveloped property at 56 Bay View Avenue in Oak Bluffs. Over several years, Gloria and her future husband built a residence on that property. When they married, her husband deeded the property to himself and Gloria jointly. In or about 1962, they began living in the home they constructed. When they divorced in the 1970s, Gloria became the sole owner of 56 Bay View Avenue (the “Property”). Gloria still resides at the Property, as she has for approximately 58 years.
The property is located on Lagoon Pond in Oak Bluffs. It overlooks Vineyard Haven Harbor, and has 95 feet of private beach. The residence at the Property is a one-story home containing three bedrooms and one full bath.
Gloria has no children. Although Gloria comes from a large Vineyard family, David Steere was her only sibling still living on the Vineyard. At the relevant times, Gloria would have dinner at David’s house occasionally, and he and his wife sometimes drove Gloria to family events, particularly if the event was off-island. Most of the next generation of the Steere family had also left the Vineyard. For example, David’s son, Defendant Lyle Steere, lived in Boston. The only member of the next generation of Gloria’s family still on Martha’s Vineyard was her nephew Jesse Steere III. Jesse owns and operates a hardware store in Vineyard Haven. After her retirement in 1997, Gloria would visit him at the store frequently.
Gloria’s formal education ended with her high school graduation in 1950. After working for a year as a nanny, she was chosen to represent Massachusetts in an international farm youth exchange program that sent her to England and Wales. Upon her return, she traveled Massachusetts to discuss what she learned about agriculture in Great Britain. She then found employment as a bookkeeper at a dairy for 10 years.
When she was about 30 years old, Gloria went to work at an insurance agency. After a merger or two, that agency became Martha’s Vineyard Insurance Company, apparently the largest agency on Martha’s Vineyard. She became the bookkeeper at the agency after working there for about a year. By the time she retired after more than 36 years at Martha’s Vineyard Insurance, she was the treasurer of the company, and, she testified, “Everyone called me the CFO, although I thought of myself as a bookkeeper.” Although she was the only accounting employee, because of her stature at the agency the company’s approximately 30 employees were under her supervision to a certain extent. Most of her duties were financial, such as closing the books of the agency at the end of each month. Among her other duties were handling financial relations with insurance companies, and handling the agency’s payroll. Gloria retired from Martha’s Vineyard Insurance in July 1997.
When Gloria retired, she had amassed savings of approximately $800,000. She could easily handle all her expenses. She became active in the activities of the Oak Bluffs Senior Center, and traveled on what she called “senior trips,” including to Europe. She took care of the Property, finding particular pleasure in gardening and landscaping. She also spent a lot of time reading.
Beginning in 2012 or 2013, Gloria fell victim to telephone scammers. The first scammers told her that she had considerable money waiting for her in a bank account, but she had to send money for expenses like escrow fees to get the money out of the account. She began sending cash, mostly by Federal Express, to the addresses specified by the scammers.
Gloria also received scam calls of a more threatening nature. When she stopped sending money because she was running out, one scammer threatened to come to the Vineyard and check out the Property, to see what he could do to get the money that she supposedly owed.
By early 2014, she had sent her life savings to the scammers, and was essentially living on Social Security. Over the year or two in which she was victimized, she never mentioned the calls, or her actions in response, to any of her relatives or friends. Now, however, sometimes unable to pay for expenses of daily life, she reluctantly turned to her family, telling two of her siblings, her brother David and her sister Rosemary (who does not live in Massachusetts), about the scams. Both siblings were sympathetic. David began lending small amounts of money to Gloria. David, a retired police officer, suggested that Gloria report the scams to the Oak Bluffs Police Department, which she did. Gloria provided police with her notes about the calls and the amounts she sent. The police told her to stop answering the calls and to stop sending money.
The police investigated, and reported the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which then contacted Gloria. But no scammers were found and no money was recovered.
Seeking additional funds on which to live, Gloria set up an appointment with a reverse mortgage lender. At her request, David accompanied her to meet with this lender. Gloria asked David his opinion about the reverse mortgage, and he replied that it was her decision. In testimony that I credit, David said that he did not believe it was his place to prevent Gloria from gaining access to another large sum of money.
Gloria obtained the reverse mortgage, which is Exhibit 1. That mortgage, which Gloria signed on January 29, 2014, says that the maximum principal amount that could be lent to Gloria was $938,250. However, in testimony I credit, Gloria said that she believed that only $450,000 was actually available to her. She took $200,000-$250,000 immediately, and considerably more over the next two years.
Unfortunately, the scammers continue to call. Even more unfortunately, Gloria continued to send them money. Although David had urged her to stop sending any money, she neither heeded that advice nor consulted David (or anyone else). Eventually she exhausted the reverse mortgage funds as well, primarily by sending those funds to scammers, although she did spend some of those funds on expenses related to the Property.
In or about 2015, while visiting her nephew Jesse at his hardware store, Gloria asked to borrow $200. Jesse asked why. Gloria confessed that she lost all her money, and she asked Jesse not to tell his uncle David she was asking Jesse for money. Jesse gave her the money she requested.
Jesse also called David. David told Jesse about the scammers, that he had involved the police, and that nonetheless Gloria kept giving away her money. David recommended that Jesse not give Gloria any money.
Nonetheless, Jesse continued to give small amounts to Gloria when she said she needed money to buy medicine or food. He also followed up with David, and got the impression that David was dealing with things by, for instance, pursuing the police and FBI investigation.
Gloria became concerned about her ability to pay the real estate taxes on the Property. She borrowed approximately $3000 from Jesse for one quarterly payment. Other back real estate taxes remained unpaid.
David Stevens, who lived next door to the Property at 58 Bay View Avenue, had earlier expressed interest in purchasing the Property for his children, and establishing a family compound. David Steere testified that it was “common knowledge” that Mr. Stevens had long coveted the Property. Remembering this, Gloria went to Mr. Stevens, hoping to strike a real estate deal with him that would keep her in her home for the rest of her life.
Mr. Stevens was open to such a transaction. He offered to pay real estate taxes which had accumulated over two or three years, homeowner’s insurance, and other expenses, and Gloria agreed to sell him the property for approximately $500,000. Mr. Stevens also agreed to permit her to live in her home for the rest of her life.
Gloria discussed the possible transaction with David. However, Gloria did not consult a lawyer about her proposed transaction with Mr. Stevens. Nor did Gloria seek professional advice from a realtor before she agreed to sell the Property for approximately $500,000. Price was not Gloria’s...
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