Wednesday, June 03, 2015

NYC Woman: Lawyer Took Advantage Of My Now-Deceased, Blind, Dementia Stricken Mom, Sucking Legal Fees Out Of Her Realty-Rich, $20M Estate; Used POA To Wrestle Control Of Trust Benefiting Grandson

In New York City, the New York Post reports:
  • A Hamptons judge once censured by the state took advantage of a wealthy, legally blind, dementia-stricken Manhattan woman just so he could suck legal fees out of her estate, according to a lawsuit.

    So many strangers had been worming their way into 85-year-old Frances Coles’ life in the years before she died, her daughter Diana Coles went to court in 2012 to gain control of her mother’s affairs.

    The octogenarian had roughly $20 million in assets, including an Upper East Side apartment, part ownership of an office building in Boston, a waterfront Long Island estate, art, stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

    While she was living out her golden years in a Suffolk County nursing home, Frances Coles’ “overwhelming weaknesses were apparent to anyone who came in contact with her,” her daughter claims.

    The Coles matriarch “fell prey to myriad of opportunists who inserted themselves into her life in attempts to access and/or control her overt wealth,” her daughter says in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit against one of the alleged “opportunists.”