Court: Don t assume undue influence by child

The Indiana Court of Appeals used an opinion issued today to caution courts to not assume a child is exerting undue influence over a parent when analyzing cases involving adult children assisting an aging parent.

In Bruce Barkwill v. The Cornelia H. Barkwill Revocable Trust, No. 64A04-0808-CV-455, the appellate judges had to decide whether Cornelia Barkwill revised her trust under undue influence from her son Jeffrey Barkwill. Jeffrey lived near Cornelia, assisted her in getting a line of credit on her homes, and issued checks drawn on that line of credit to her when needed. He also advanced around $230,000 of his own money to her throughout the years. Bruce lived in Florida and only saw his mother twice between 1998 and when she died in 2007