Daughter ordered to repay $25,000,000 obtained through undue influence

March 16, 2007
Reported in The San Antonio Express-News

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On March 14, 2005 Suzanne Mathews filed a Petition with the Probate Court No. 1 in Bexar County, Texas seeking to be appointed temporary and permanent guardian over Lillian Glasser, her 86 year old mother. Less than one month later Lillian, a long standing resident of the State of New Jersey, awoke to find herself involuntarily committed by Mathews to the Nix Hospital for Behavioral Health Services in San Antonio, Texas and more than $25,000,000 in assets transferred from her accounts to a family limited partnership, controlled by Mathews and her husband. Desperate to return home to her family and friends in New Jersey, Lillian repeatedly called her nephew Rick Smith for assistance. On behalf of his aunt Smith filed suit seeking the intervention of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Middlesex County, through his counsel Thomas S. Harty, a shareholder of Levy, Baldante, Finney, Rubenstein, Cohen & Chizmar, P.C..

So began a bitter family saga which was resolved only after an extensive 34 day trial before the Honorable Alexander P. Waugh Jr. On March 8, 2007 Judge Waugh issued a decision in which he denied Mathews’ bid to be appointed Lillian’s guardian. Judge Waugh concluded that Mathews had isolated Lillian from her family, breached her fiduciary duty to her mother and exerted undue influence over Lillian in a bid to control an estate valued at approximately $25,000,000. In so ruling, the Court invalidated a Power of Attorney obtained by Mathews’ undue influence, ordered the dissolution of a Family Limited Partnership that Mathews had purportedly created in 2004 to set up “tax advantages” for her mother’s estate and rendered null her Last Will and Testament that had been prepared for Lillian by an attorney Mathews retained and which Lillian executed only days after having undergone hip replacement surgery. The Court further permitted Lillian’s estate to reimburse Smith for the counsel fees he incurred in coming to her aid and support finding that “Mr. Harty is a highly skilled attorney who presented his client’s case with great acumen.”

As a result of the action instituted by Smith and the intervention by the Middlesex County Board of Social Services, Lillian Glasser was returned to the State of New Jersey and resides comfortably in the home she shared with her late husband, under the protection of the guardians appointed by Judge Waugh: Joseph Catanese and Morgan Stanley.