By Stephen Seitz
updated
Mon, Jan 30, 2012 12:23 PM
WOODSTOCK - Testimony began Jan. 30 in a multimillion-dollar
lawsuit that could determine whether a broad range of local
charities in the Ludlow area benefit from resident Phyllis G. Agan,
who died in 2008.
According to court documents, Agan's total fortune amounted to
just over $9 million, held in the Phyllis G. Agan Trust. She had
left instructions for the funds to be distributed to family
members, with $1.5 million designated for 14 area charitable
organizations. However, some members of her family question whether
she was competent and capable of making such a decision, as she was
in the throes of Alzheimer's disease, the ultimate cause of death,
according to Agan's death certificate. Agan's nephew and two
sisters filed suit in Windsor Superior Court civil division.
"We're here today because on November 9, 2005, Phyllis Agan
approved a trust," said attorney Stephen Soule, speaking for the
plaintiffs. "She put into the trust everything she had. She left
about $1.5 million to a number of community organizations, two of
which no longer existed when she died, and she had been in conflict
with one of them."
Soule cited a number of incidences indicating dementia; her
sister, Joanne Curran, filed a chronicle of some of them in Windsor
Probate Court, taken from her diary. Among them: on Dec. 4 2003,
"Phyllis delusional. A new door has been added to her home, but she
doesn't know why. Her conversation is scrambled.''
The entry for March 17, 2004, reads, "Phyllis calls. Distraught
and delusional; thinks she's in Florida... wants to straighten
things out when she gets back to Vermont even though she knows
she's at home in Ludlow."
Soule argued that Agan's condition left her susceptible and
vulnerable.
"She was open to manipulation and suggestion," Soule said. "By
November 2005, she was in no condition to make changes to her
trust."
Not necessarily, argued Peter Langrock, one of the defense
attorneys.
"At what point does a person lose the right to tell who gets
their goods and their property?" Langrock asked. "The only real
question is whether on November 9, 2005, Phyllis had the capacity
to make those decisions."
Nov. 9, 2005 is the date Agan approved the seventh amendment to
the trust, according to court documents. In it she left local
organizations including Black River Good Neighbor Services, the
Salvation Army, the Ludlow Garden Club and several others amounts
ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. Most of these funds were
designated for a variety of uses in Ludlow, such as enhancing
building funds and creating a home economics scholarship.
Of Agan's family members, her brother, Michael F. Goodine was
bequeathed $250,000; niece Cathleen Curran was left Agan's house
and personal property, plus the rest of the estate after
distribution; sister Joanne Curran received 15 percent of the
estate; sister Patricia Sutphen, $50,000; and nephew Dr. Michael G.
Curran, $50,000.
Langrock said these decisions reflected clear and specific
thinking.
"Was her decision rational?" he asked. "Is it irrational to
leave $150,000 for a building fund? She wanted to benefit the
people of Ludlow. She was concerned about those charities since
1996."
The trust was created in 1993, according to court documents.
It appears, from court documents, no one had any problem with
Agan's making these decisions at the time. According to an order
allowing the will to proceed signed by Judge Sarah E. Vail on Sept.
23, 2008, no one appeared to contest the will and found that "the
decedent was, at the time of executing (her will) of full age, of
sound mind, of disposing memory."
Eight days have been allotted for testimony by the court.
