Two fairly recent Tennessee undue influence cases prove a point: To win an undue influence case, the plaintiff (or contestant if it is a will contest) must prove more than mere unfairness or favoritism. Both cases involved alleged undue influence with respect to deeds for land. In the first…
Under Tennessee law, which follows the “American Rule,” a winning party cannot recover its attorney’s fees from the losing party. There are a couple of exceptions to that Rule. One of those exceptions is that a party can recover its attorney’s fees if there is a contractual provision whereby the…
In any Tennessee will contest case, there may be a number of relatives of the deceased who will benefit from the will contest case if the Will at issue is set aside. There might also be non-relative beneficiaries of a previous Will who will benefit if the Will is set…
In a recent breach of contract case involving a physician’s claim for accounts receivable after he left the partnership in which he was a partner (the ”Partnership”), the physician prevailed on his claims. The physician (the “Plaintiff”) also prevailed as to the counterclaim of his former partners who counter-sued him…
Tennessee will contest cases, especially will contests where the basis for trying to set aside the will is undue influence, are often all about suspicious circumstances. As Tennessee courts have observed for years, in many cases (I believe most), the only way to prove undue influence is by circumstantial evidence. …
There are Tennessee statutes which protect the proceeds of life insurance policies for surviving spouses and children even when the deceased parent may have owed creditors more money than the policy benefits at the time of his or her death. Not only do the statutes protect the proceeds of life…
Pre-judgment interest is the interest which accrues from the date an obligation is due to the plaintiff until the day the judge or jury enters a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Given that a breach of contact case or other commercial litigation case may take a year or more…
Where parties own real property jointly, and one party has announced his or her intention to sell, the most sensible approach for the other owner or owners to take is to cooperate with the owner who wants to sell. If co-owners can cooperate, they can save themselves attorneys’ fees and…
Any Tennessee boundary line case will most likely turn into a classic “battle of the experts” where both parties use a surveyor as their expert witness. In cases where both parties have reputable surveyors, how does the court pick the winner? A boundary line case which recently reached the Court…
In Tennessee, a bank account, certificate of deposit, money market account, or other type of financial account may be maintained as a joint account with a right of survivorship. Such accounts may also be maintained as single owner accounts, but be made payable on death to a named beneficiary. Payable…