described in the trial as complicated<\/a>. They also said the changes, which would have left Harley with $1,000, accounted for a lifetime of gifts and earlier inheritance from their mother that Harley received.<\/p>\nSeattle-based attorney Jason Burnett, who represented Lanzce, declined to comment on the ruling. He said they have not yet made a decision on whether to appeal.<\/p>\n
High-Edward\u2019s ruling effectively bars Lanzce and Stacey from receiving any inheritance from their father in addition to recognizing the prior iteration of the will. State law forbids those who financially exploit a vulnerable adult from receiving any inheritance.<\/p>\n
Hassing said he expected the judge to reach that determination about Lanzce and Stacey from the outset. With their parents now barred from an inheritance, High-Edward will likely need to decide via motion if the 2018 will intends for Lancze\u2019s children and Stacey\u2019s children to receive an inheritance.<\/p>\n
By his reading, Harley will likely receive all of it in the end, Hassing said.<\/p>\n
The judge wrote that Lancze and Stacey had their father sign documents that they had prepared themselves, with terms he did not know about. During this time, Harlan had already come to rely on others for assistance in reading, making appointments and managing his medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time of the April 22, 2019, meeting, Harlan was 82 years old, relied on others to read and explain documents to him, was unable to decipher numbers, could not pay his bills independently, had significant issues with memory recall,\u201d the ruling reads, in part.<\/p>\n
The ruling is the second time the courts found Lancze attempted to wrongly cut his older brother out of a family inheritance. A similar saga played out following the death of their mother, Maxine Douglass.<\/p>\n
The same year Harlan\u2019s will was edited, Harley challenged his siblings in court over changes to Maxine\u2019s last will and testament that cut him out of the inheritance entirely. The courts eventually ruled in Harley\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n
Prior to that case, Maxine wrote a will in 2008 that split the estate in half: Harlan would retain one half and the remainder would be split among her three children, with Harley receiving 50%, Stacey 40% and Lanzce 10%.<\/p>\n
Then in August 2019, Lanzce hired Seattle attorney Michael Murphy to draw up what was later referred to as the \u201cHamilton Deed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lanzce took what Murphy wrote, transferred the writing onto Harlan\u2019s letterhead, and then had his father sign it, according to court records.<\/p>\n
During the signing on Aug. 14, 2019, witnesses said Harlan kept falling asleep and didn\u2019t always appear to follow what was happening, according to court records.<\/p>\n
The deed was signed, transferring much of Maxine\u2019s estate to Stacey and Lanzce and removing Harley as a beneficiary.<\/p>\n
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Raymond Clary in 2023 ruled in favor of Harley\u2019s challenge to that deed, writing: \u201cLanzce Douglass, with the help of his attorney, Michael Murphy, conceived of a plan to disinherit Harley Douglass through the powers of the Special Trustee, Thomas Hamilton, and certain staged documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scheme was not only shown by the totality of the evidence,\u201d Clary continued, \u201cbut it was clear, convincing, and inescapable.\u201d<\/p>\n
High-Edward echoed that sentiment in her ruling Monday, saying the unsavory circumstances of how Harlan\u2019s will came to be changed were made clear over the course of the summer proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter examining the extensive testimony and evidence provided at trial, observing the witness\u2019s testimony, and considering motivation, bias, and inconsistency of each witness,\u201d she wrote, \u201cthe totality of the circumstances establishes clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that Lanzce and Stacey unduly influenced Harlan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two would-be heirs of one of Spokane\u2019s wealthiest men will not receive a single cent, after a judge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-896040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}