Posted on 07/21/2013 3:01:35 PM PDT by NYer
Edited on 08/13/2013 7:31:11 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Lawyers contesting the will of a widow who gave some $60 million to a secretive and disgraced Roman Catholic religious order are trying again to have their case heard, filing court papers in an attempt allow the woman's niece to sue.
The papers, filed Wednesday with the Rhode Island Supreme Court, argue that Mary Lou Dauray has the right to intervene in the estate of her late aunt, Gabrielle Mee, a devout Catholic who gave most of her money to the conservative religious order the Legion of Christ. Mee died in 2008.
The lawyers seek to overturn a ruling by Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein, who threw out Dauray's lawsuit last year, saying she had no standing to sue. But he said at the same time that evidence existed that Mee was unduly persuaded to give the Legion her money and detailed how the Legion slowly took control of her finances as she became more deeply involved in the movement.
A church investigation determined that the Legion's founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children. The Vatican took over the order in 2010 and Pope Benedict XVI ordered a wholesale reform.
Dauray's lawyers have said that Mee was defrauded by an order whose leaders orchestrated an effort to hide its founder's misdeeds from her aunt. Silverstein said in throwing out the lawsuit that some of what was before the court raised a red flag because Mee transferred millions to "clandestinely dubious religious leaders."
In Wednesday's filings, Dauray's lawyers argue that Dauray is legally interested in Mee's estate and that Mee's most recent will was obtained by fraud and undue influence by the Legion.
Silverstein said in his opinion in part that Dauray disavowed her interest when she said during a deposition that she didn't want anything for herself from Mee's estate, but instead wanted it to go to charity. Wednesday's filing argues that comment should not have been taken as Mee disavowing her interest.
The Legion must file a response with the court by early August. The order has not studied the filing yet but expects to prevail, said spokesman Jim Fair.
Ping!
There are very few cases in which I am comfortable overturning a will, and this is not one of them. People who contest a dead relative’s last will and testament disgust me.
a secretive and revolting society to which people get suckered in and end up leaving $60 million disgust me.
I have no problem with the Legion of Christ getting that money after seeing to whom the niece gives political contributions..Al Franken, Move On, ActBlue
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/mary-dauray.asp?cycle=08
Gosh I’m shocked. /sarc
vatican took over in 2010. so what? she died in 2008. also....they should have done something about this crooked “society” waaaaaaaay before 2010.
Keyword here is ‘conservative’ ‘catholic’ organization. Real simple, the girl here is angry that all the money is going to an organization that she personally hates.
Maybe she has reason to hate it. Maybe she saw family members brainwashed and destroyed.
Maybe she has reason to hate it. Maybe she saw family members brainwashed and destroyed.
oops...sorry for the double post. :(
If the niece is a certified leftist lunatic, I expect she will have no problem finding the kind of “justice” (AKA auntie’s cash for herself) she wants in almost any American court today.
The Vatican moves quite slowly, but that is irrelevant. The niece didn’t show enough interest to get her aunt declared incompetent while the woman was still alive (and I suspect she would have failed if she tried) or to convince her aunt to voluntarily leave her assets to some other individuals or organizations, so she loses the moral right to challenge the will once her aunt is dead. I do not approve of predatory lawsuits, and that is the only explanation I see for this woman’s greedy grab for money.
I have been executor in two wills, neither of which I entirely approved of, and in both cases I faithfully executed my duties to the letter. I would have fought to the death (my own if necessary) to distribute the assets in accordance with the wishes of the deceased.
We do not know 100% what the niece had or hadn’t tried in the past. We do not know her heart or soul. We DO know Legion of Christ was a shady, deceptive, brainwashing “society” which needed to be destroyed.
We do know that whatever she tried while her aunt was alive, she failed. After her aunt’s death, it’s inappropriate to reverse the will.
I would keep trying until my own death....”inappropriate” or not. so what? The inappropriate acts LOC did sure didn’t stop them for decades. Screw them. I hope she keeps plugging away until she gets $60 mil...plus court costs. (ok...not going to happen...but we do not know what the family has been through)
Mrs Mee was a consecrated sister in Regnum Christi since 1991. Their consecrated sisters take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She lived with them for over seventeen years.Being childless, I am sure she considered them her family. Since she lived to be age 97, it would seem she was cared for quite well.
Some interesting stuff from the web from her obituary & also on some blog where her family is fighting with each other..
When Gabrielle Mee died in May 2008 on the Greenville, R.I., campus of the Legionaries of Christ, her caregivers mourned the loss of the order's "grandmother."
Scroll down page to truthblazer's comment.. He's a nephew who supports the will as Mrs. Mee intended...then the fight begins:
"How can Mary Lou call herself charitable. She is a joke. Her relatives are living in poverty and if it weren't for her father swindling from the Dauray fourtune she would not have anything in life. Her paintings certainly wouldn't make her money. They are a joke. I would be ashamed to call herself an artist if I were her."
I am the neice also of Gabrielle Dauray Mee and Mary Lou Dauray is blocking the entire family from the fortune for herself. I hired a lawyer and then Poof my attorney was too afraid to do anything on my behalf. Does this sound like Mary Lou Dauray is as much of a bully as the Legionaires of Christ are????
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