Legal Negligence in Estate Management: A Case Study

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On September 12, 2014, Denise Rockett filed a complaint against Eugene Nigro, Esq. Nigro was reportedly negligent when handling legal matters in her late husband’s estate. Specifically, the complainant alleges that Denise, as Executrix of her late husband’s estate, was intentionally excluded from major decisions, not properly compensated, and deprived of control over their properties. Nigro allegedly breached his fiduciary obligation and violated Mass.R.Prof.C. 1.4(b), 1.7(b), and 8.4(c). FACTS On November 26, 2009, Denise Rockett’s husband, J. Hilary Rockett passed away. In his Will Hilary specifically named his wife as the Executrix of his estate. Additionally, Nigro and Edward J. Rockett, Hilary’s brother, had been assigned as Co-Trustees, …show more content…

It seems that the feud has been perpetuated by Denise because she wanted control over the entire estate and Trust. Approximately eight different cases have been filed in order to dispute the issues that have arisen from the handling of Hilary’s estate. Denise was willing to go to great lengths to disrupt the administration of the Trust. There is a report that Denise changed the locks at the Trust premises and disconnected computer servers, removed documents as well as shredded them. According to Edward Rockett, Denise is mentally unstable and even alleges that she is in bad health which resulted in a medically induced coma. Denise represents herself as being married to Hilary for 47 years when in fact this is not true. The couple divorced in 1984 and only remarried in 2008, shortly before Hilary died. She also claims that they worked together their entire marriage. It appears that Denise is trying to gain leverage or sympathy by claiming that they both worked hard to get the company to where it is today, this claim doesn’t appear to be true. In one of the many lawsuits filed between these two parties, the court found that Denise “had not been involved in the day to day operations of the Trust business” and her sons were reinstated as managers to “run the business/es consistent with the terms of the Trust …show more content…

I am not sure how we could prove/disprove that she did not understand the meaning of papers that Nigro asked her to sign the evening before her husband’s death. She seems to be fairly competent in her complaint. If we decided to pursue this investigation we could potentially prove/disprove whether she received money quarterly from the estate by requesting that Nigro provide us with the information that was given to her attorney. Lastly, I suppose we could also follow up with Nigro as to who he thinks the helpful family member was that assisted Denise in becoming the Registered Agent and

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