80-Year Old Mom Left "Heartbroken" Over Daughter's Attempt To Give Her The Boot Out Of Her Own Home

In Worcester, Massachusetts, the Worcester Telegram reports:

• Elayne Gilbert took the witness stand in Worcester Housing Court and said she was “heartbroken” over efforts to evict her from the Shrewsbury condo she’s inhabited since 2002. [...] Ms. Gilbert is 80 and living on Social Security. Throughout her testimony, she never once glanced at the plaintiff, the woman trying to evict her, the woman who, pathetically, happens to be her own daughter.

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• Surprisingly, the dysfunctional family train wreck careening through the Housing Court isn’t unusual. According to James Bisceglia, clerk magistrate, a “significant number” of their cases involve litigation between family members — parents versus kids, kids versus parents, sibling against sibling. All very Springeresque. “When it comes to family members, things can turn very ugly very fast,” Mr. Bisceglia said.

• In the ugliness now under way, Ms. Gilbert, who had been living in New Mexico, wanted to move back here to be closer to her daughter and family. So in 2002 she mailed a check for $210,000 to her daughter and son-in-law and asked them to buy her a home. They bought a condo for $230,000 at 107 Harrington Farms Way in Shrewsbury. But they wrote “gift” on the check and put the condo in their own name. And they didn’t establish a life estate or a trust so that Ms. Gilbert could live there until she died. Now, after eight years, they want her out.

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• “I thought I’d have a place to live for the rest of my life,” Ms. Gilbert said. “I trusted them.” Referring to her daughter, she said, “She told me if I don’t get out of the house, she’ll throw my furniture out the door.”

• Ms. Gilbert’s lawyer, Peter Heintzelman, has asked Judge Timothy J. Sullivan to dismiss the eviction claim, arguing that Ms. Gilbert wasn’t a tenant because she paid no rent. He’s asked the judge to allow her to stay in the condo and he’s seeking damages. “I think we have a good argument,” Mr. Heintzelman said. Maybe. But regardless of which way the judge rules, this case is one big loser.

For the story, see She’s neither a borrower nor a lender.