Peter Keith

A family torn apart by a matriarch’s last will may sound like the plot for a soap opera, but in reality, those facts formed the basis for one of the more complex and challenging cases recently litigated by Gallagher Evelius & Jones LLP.

Several months before her death Rose Posner changed her will, leaving most of her $20 million estate to her son and three charities, while disinheriting her two daughters. Unhappy with their mother's will, and represented by Baltimore's largest law firm, the two daughters took their brother to court, claiming that he had committed fraud and undue influence by turning their mother against them and convincing her to redo her will so that he could inherit her estate. The daughters also fought their brother and their mother's estate over estate tax liability and a large trust established by their father.

Because of his trial experience, Gallagher Evelius & Jones LLP litigator Peter Keith was asked to join the team to defend Rose Posner's will and to litigate the complicated tax and estate issues. Using medical testimony and videotapes, Keith was able to recreate Mrs. Posner’s wishes in the courtroom, convincingly demonstrating both her thought process in changing her will and the fact that she was not a person who was easily manipulated by anyone. After a month-long trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, the jury ruled in favor of the estate and the son, finding no fraud and upholding Mrs. Posner's will. After achieving this victory, in a second lawsuit that reached the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, Keith next recovered $2 million for the estate from the daughters to help pay estate taxes. Keith currently is pursuing a $4 million refund claim, in the U.S. Tax Court on behalf of the estate against the IRS.