Thursday, January 25, 2024
An Unclear Burden: Proving Undue Influence in Connecticut
Jeffrey A. Cooper (Quinnipiac University), An Unclear Burden: Proving Undue Influence in Connecticut, 37 Quinnipiac Prob. L.J. (2023):
In will contests, one party often will make an allegation of “undue influence,” suggesting that another party procured an unnatural share of the decedent’s estate by overcoming the decedent’s free will. As this paper explores, Connecticut law is not clear on the question of what burden of proof is required to prove a claim of undue influence. While the Appellate Court’s 2021 ruling in Holloway v. Carvalho suggested that the burden of proof in all undue influence cases is that of clear and convincing evidence, a closer review of the Court’s opinion shows that conclusion to have been built upon a rather thin jurisprudential foundation. Rather, over a century of Connecticut case law has left this crucial question unresolved.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/healthlawprof_blog/2024/01/an-unclear-burden-proving-undue-influence-in-connecticut.html