Daughter ordered to repay millions
March 15, 2007
San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA031607_01A_glasser_ruling_370d8b2_html23143.html
An Alamo Heights woman has been directed to return roughly $20 million to her elderly mother, Lillian Glasser, whose estate was the subject of bitter family feuding in and out of Texas and New Jersey courts.

Glasser, 86, was described as thrilled by the ruling of Judge Alexander Waugh of New Jersey’s Middlesex County. The judge’s order hammered the daughter, Suzanne Mathews, and denied her bid to be appointed as Glasser’s guardian.

Glasser “finds it unbelievable that it’s finally over,” Karen Peña, her court-appointed attorney in Texas, said Thursday after speaking with her client at a winter retreat in Florida.

Mathews declined to comment on the March 9 opinion in which Waugh concluded she’d isolated Glasser, breached her fiduciary duty to her and exerted undue influence over her in a bid to control an estate once valued at $25 million.

“I found the testimony of Ms. Mathews and her husband to be, at significant times, purposefully forgetful, evasive or simply untruthful,” wrote the judge.

Waugh invalidated Glasser’s will dated December 2002, drafted with help from Mathews after Glasser’s mental capacity was deemed suspect.

That leaves in force a will drafted by Glasser in October 2002 that treats the wealthy widow’s two children equally, Peña said.

The judge also ordered the dissolution of a limited family partnership that Mathews had created in 2004, purportedly to set up a tax advantage for the estate, and funded with $24 million of Glasser’s money.

Peña couldn’t say how much money remains in the partnership, over which Mathews had control.

Waugh said Mathews also must account for the estate’s expenditures and reimburse Glasser for any that are deemed by the court to be inappropriate.

Sibling rivalry

The legal fight shaped up as an extension of a youthful sibling rivalry between Mathews, now 55, and Mark Glasser, now 59, of Florida.

Waugh said Mark Glasser acted in good faith to assist his mother, although his effectiveness was hindered by “take no prisoners” tactics that included sending inflammatory e-mails and advising his mother to not take her medications.

He said Mark Glasser also was “less than candid” at times as a witness in the 34-day trial last summer where he fought his sister’s bid to be appointed guardian.

Before jurisdiction in the case was claimed last spring by New Jersey, where Glasser had long resided, Mathews held her for months in Texas against her wishes and initiated proceedings here to have guardianship established.

Mathews contended she was concerned about her mother’s faltering mental capacity and acted to protect her health, dignity and assets.

But, in his 82-page opinion, Waugh repeatedly labeled Mathews’ testimony incredible, and her actions — under her mother’s power of attorney — suspect.

Reached in Florida on Thursday, Mark Glasser said, “I’m happy that it’s over.”

He’s heard talk of an appeal, but hopes neither his family, nor any other, must face such a painful legal ordeal again.

“I’d like to hope that attention is focused on the need for judicial reform in the probate and guardianship arena,” Mark Glasser said.

In his ruling, Waugh cited Mathews’ failure to disclose to her mother transfers of estate assets, to tell her mother’s doctors of another doctor’s diagnosis and to share the doctors’ findings with some estate attorneys.

More than once, he said, Lillian Glasser was presented with proposed changes to her estate plan on the heels of surgery, while susceptible to “post operative delusions.”

“I am convinced that Ms. Mathews used undue influence to cause her mother to make material changes in her estate plan to the benefit of Ms. Mathews and at the expense of Mr. Glasser at a time when Mrs. Glasser was particularly vulnerable,” Waugh said.

New guardian

Concluding that Glasser is currently incapacitated, he appointed as her personal guardian Joseph Cantanese, her court-appointed attorney at the trial, and financial planners Neuberger Berman as guardian of the estate.

The litigation in New Jersey was begun by Rick Smith, Glasser’s nephew, after she was brought to Texas in 2005 by Mathews and wasn’t permitted to return to New Jersey or Florida, as she desired.

Waugh found Smith’s motives pure and his actions prudent in advising Glasser to seek outside advice before signing off on estate plans prepared by Mathews’ lawyers.

Reached in Florida on Thursday, Smith said, “I’m very pleased with the judge’s ruling and the restoration of my aunt as a person, and her property.”

The two-year legal odyssey pitted kin against kin and was an emotional drain for Glasser, but, Smith said, “For a woman who’s been through the ordeal that she’s been through, she’s doing reasonably well.”

Mathews’ attorney, Ricardo Cedillo of San Antonio, said the trial proved that Mathews had not kidnapped her mother, but he described the proceeding as pointless in some respects.

“The other side made us go through this long hearing and we ended up with exactly what we had before we left Texas,” he said, asserting Mathews had long been open to someone else being named Glasser’s guardian.

That’s not reflected in the judge’s ruling, and Peña said: “It’s not the truth as I know the facts to be. (Mathews) fought to be guardian … to the bitter end.”

Peña, who was appointed to represent Glasser two years ago, said Waugh’s opinion was thoughtful and thorough.