Hoffman v. Kohns

385 So. 2d 1064
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 13, 1980
Docket79-944
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 385 So. 2d 1064 (Hoffman v. Kohns) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman v. Kohns, 385 So. 2d 1064 (Fla. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

385 So.2d 1064 (1980)

Dorothy S. HOFFMAN, Appellant, Cross-Appellee,
v.
Eloise Sue KOHNS, Personal Representative of the Estate of Herbert L. Kohns, Appellee, Cross-Appellant.

No. 79-944.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

June 13, 1980.
Rehearing Denied July 15, 1980.

*1065 Curtis J. Timm of Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm & Furen, Sarasota, for appellant, cross-appellee.

Geoffrey Morris of Hazen & Morris, Venice, for appellee, cross-appellant.

BOARDMAN, Judge.

The instant appeal and cross-appeal arise out of an order concerning the disposition of the estate of the decedent Herbert L. Kohns. Appellant Dorothy Hoffman is Kohns' niece; appellee Eloise Sue Kohns is his second wife. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Kohns died on September 13, 1976, at the age of 84. Appellee subsequently filed a petition for administration of Kohns' most recent will, executed on September 26, 1975. After this will was admitted to probate, appellant sought revocation of probate on the ground that appellee had procured the will by undue influence. Appellant also attacked the validity of appellee's marriage to Kohns and Kohns' subsequent revocation of a certain trust.

Following a bench trial, the trial court found that Kohns was legally competent to make the September 26, 1975 will; to enter into a valid marriage contract with appellee, whom he married on September 22, 1975; and to revoke on October 3, 1975, a trust he had created in 1969. The court ruled Kohns' marriage to appellee and his revocation of the trust valid, but ruled the will invalid because of appellee's undue influence upon Kohns. The trial court subsequently granted appellee's petition to be determined Kohns' pretermitted spouse and ruled that she was entitled to Kohns' entire estate. This appeal and cross-appeal followed timely.

On January 16, 1969, Kohns, then over seventy years old, established a revocable trust of which he and appellant were co-trustees. The trust provided that after Kohns' death forty per cent of the trust assets would be distributed to appellant's two children and appellant would have a *1066 life estate in the other sixty per cent with the remainder to her children. The assets Kohns then owned were transferred to the trust.

On July 2, 1969, Kohns executed a pour-over will providing for $5,000 bequests to Robert Strauss and another named individual and three charitable bequests. The remainder of his probate estate was poured into the 1969 trust to be distributed under its terms.

After 1969, Kohns' mental and physical condition gradually deteriorated. He became extremely forgetful, paranoid, and suspicious, expressing distrust of all banks, doctors, trust officers, and others. From 1968 to 1975, Kohns lived alone in rental apartments. Until his stroke in October, 1974, he was able to drive an automobile, but had to have a woman at his bank make deposits and reconcile his checkbook.

When Kohns inherited additional funds in 1972 and 1973, he wanted to put these into the trust and began to think about making some provision for Robert Strauss, an old friend who had become destitute.

On October 13, 1974, Kohns telephoned appellant and her husband Mike Hoffman and requested that they immediately come to Florida because he thought that some of his securities and other papers were missing. The Hoffmans flew to Florida the next day. On October 15, 1974, Kohns and Hoffman inventoried Kohns' safety deposit box and determined that nothing was missing. That same day Kohns and the Hoffmans conferred about a minor change to Kohns' 1969 trust to provide for Strauss. Appellant agreed that she should be eliminated as a life income beneficiary of sixty per cent of the trust and the income from that portion should be paid one-half to Strauss and one-half to her children. Hoffman and Kohns saw Kohns' attorney, Curtis Timm, who was asked to prepare an amendment to the trust incorporating the agreed-upon change and a new pour-over will deleting the bequest to Strauss. Timm had been Kohns' attorney for almost ten years. An appointment was set up for execution of the documents the next day.

After seeing Timm, Kohns and Hoffman returned to Kohns' apartment. Kohns, who had been behaving somewhat strangely, upon seeing that appellant had purchased a supply of food for him, "all of a sudden ... decided that [appellant] had no right to go out and buy food and put it in his refrigerator and cook dinner for him." Kohns then went to his room and refused to come out for dinner, and the appointment with Timm was cancelled. The next day the Hoffmans returned to New York.

On October 25, 1974, Kohns, then age eighty-two, was admitted to the hospital. The treating doctors concluded he was suffering from cerebral arteriosclerosis and senility. Dr. VandePolder, a consulting neurologist, determined on October 26, 1974, that Kohns had acute organic brain syndrome. A patient with this condition is not usually considered competent to perform normal tasks or to make decisions. After his discharge from the hospital, Kohns entered a nursing home.

In December 1974, Kohns refused to stay in the nursing home and was returned to his apartment, but required nurses twenty-four hours a day. In January 1975, because of the cost of twenty-four-hour nurses, Timm's office advertised for and hired live-in housekeepers for Kohns.

Kohns' housekeepers provided him transportation, purchased all of his food, made meals, kept house, wrote checks for his signature, and generally handled his personal and routine financial matters. His checkbook was reconciled and some of his checks for bills were written by Dera Rahn, an employee in the bookkeeping department of his bank.

Kohns was frail and feeble, disoriented at times, forgetful, sometimes hostile and irate, suspicious and paranoid. He was withdrawn at times, sitting for hours staring into space.

Appellant telephoned Kohns monthly, and he was on pleasant terms with her. Appellant's last conversation with Kohns was on September 3, 1975.

*1067 In the last week of August 1975, appellee, age fifty-five, was hired as Kohns' housekeeper. Because Kohns was incapable of paying or making an agreement to pay his housekeepers, on September 9, 1975, appellee brought Kohns to Timm's office and told Timm that she had worked for over a week and had not been paid. Timm made arrangements with Dera Rahn to have appellee paid $200 for the ten days she had worked and thereafter to be paid weekly. Timm also asked Kohns if he wanted to execute the pour-over will and amendment to his trust that had been prepared on October 15, 1974. These two documents were then executed. Timm certified that at the time of the execution of the will Kohns was of sound mind and memory.

Up to September 9, 1975, the relationship between Kohns and appellee was solely one of employer and housekeeper/nurse. According to appellee nothing significant occurred between September 9 and September 22, 1975, and there was no change in their relationship during this period.

On September 1, 1975, appellee took Kohns to his bank, and his safety deposit box was closed. One previous housekeeper testified that Kohns was not capable of closing a safety deposit box and transferring its contents without assistance. The box contained all of Kohns' assets, including at least $40,000 worth of bearer bonds.

On September 19, 1975, appellee drove Kohns to Wauchula, applied for a marriage license, and obtained the required blood tests for both of them.

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Bluebook (online)
385 So. 2d 1064, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-v-kohns-fladistctapp-1980.