Attorney challenges ruling on estate
A prominent Fox Chapel attorney is fighting to overturn a ruling that she exerted undue influence over a 97-year-old client who, just a month before she died, awarded half of a $560,000 estate to the attorney and her father.
Relatives of Bernadine V. Strobel, who died Oct. 2, 2003, say attorney Meg L. Burkardt acted unethically when she hand-wrote a will that named herself and her father, Robert, as beneficiaries. A judge agreed that one of Strobel's six previous wills, which repeatedly divided her estate among several relatives and friends, should be enforced.
In those versions, written during a span of six years, Meg L. Burkardt never was named a beneficiary.
Burkardt, 49, of Glen Haven Lane, whose father and grandparents knew Strobel and her late husband, says the elderly Verona woman pressed her to help change the will, despite her reservations about doing it. Burkardt also claims she didn't know about her $140,000 inheritance when Strobel, sitting alone with her in an Oakmont nursing home, began dictating the document.
"The matter's under appeal and I'm not at liberty to comment on it," Burkardt told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Allegheny County Judge Walter R. Little sided with Strobel's family in a four-page opinion issued May 24, less than two weeks before he died of prostate cancer. In that decision, Little ruled Strobel had a weakened intellect when Burkardt drafted the will.
Little also adopted as fact the entire 35-page findings from the family's attorneys, which suggest Burkardt habitually violated her financial duties as an attorney. Their evidence included loans made by an elderly Burkardt client to the attorney's real-estate partnership and one of her business partners, as well as the sale of two clients' homes to Burkardt's relatives and another one of her business partners.
Burkardt's attorneys are appealing Little's decision in state Superior Court and seeking a new trial in light of Little's failing health. The irony -- that questions about the lucidity and intentions of a dying woman have sparked debate about the ability of a dying judge to address them -- is not lost on those pursuing it.
"This court is asked to consider the decisions of two dying people made after long and painful struggles with physical ailments: the decision of the decedent as reflected in her will and the decision of the trial judge as reflected in his opinion and order," said Joseph F. McDonough, one of Burkardt's attorneys, in a legal brief.
"We have reams of evidence as to (Strobel's) competence and force of will at the time the decision was made," McDonough said. "We have no evidence as to (Little's) condition, we have no explanation of the reasons for his decision."
Attorneys representing Strobel's extended family have until Oct. 13 to file briefs with Superior Court. No hearing date is set on the appeal.
Many involved in the case are remaining tight-lipped.
McDonough and attorney Frank W. Jones -- who represent Burkardt, Burkardt's father and a couple who stand to inherit the remaining half of Strobel's estate in the contested wills -- did not return calls seeking comment. Burkardt co-owns the Oaks Theater in Oakmont, the adjacent Boulevard Bistro, the Penn Hills Cinema and several area rental properties.
Attorney E.J. Strassburger, who represents Strobel's great-nieces, her nephew and a friend, would not discuss the case. His firm, Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Potter, Downtown, also represents the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Strobel, a small woman who a relative said stood barely 5 feet tall, was well-acquainted with death. She outlived her husband, Clem, by 21 years and their daughter, Judy, by half a decade. Her own passing at age 97 did not seem to come as a surprise.
Strobel lived alone near the end of her life. She was hospitalized twice in August 2003 for falls that led to a fractured back. Medical records produced for the case indicate she was steroid-dependent for years because of arthritis. Her extended family said she grappled with depression, hypertension and peripheral vascular disease in her legs.
According to accounts Burkardt's attorneys have contested, Strobel also might have suffered from dementia and hallucinations in the weeks before her death. Eight days before she died, according to medical records, Strobel weighed 66 pounds.
These circumstances set the stage for the events of Aug. 30, 2003, when Burkardt drafted Strobel's will, a document Burkardt quickly asked another attorney to rewrite.
State law bans lawyers from preparing "an instrument giving the lawyer or a person related to the lawyer any substantial gift, unless the lawyer or other recipient of the gift is related to the client." The law makes exceptions for lawyers who maintain with their client "a close familial relationship," a subject that has triggered extensive debate about how well Burkardt and her father knew Strobel.
Some of Strobel's previous wills left a house or some personal property to Robert Burkardt, of Oakmont, who no longer practices. The wills never named his daughter as a primary beneficiary.
"If a lawyer has a personal interest in the client's finances or a transaction (made) by the client, then it may impede a lawyer's ability to act with that detached judgment," said attorney Thomas Wilkinson, of Philadelphia, who has chaired the Pennsylvania Bar Association's legal ethics and professional responsibility committee.
Wilkinson, who did not specifically address the Strobel case, said it's not inherently inappropriate for attorneys to inherit money from clients. But he said there are guidelines.
"It's good and sound practice to refer the client to an independent attorney for advice," he said. "That's the way conflict issues like that should usually be addressed."
The state disciplinary board said Friday it had no pending public actions or proceedings against Burkardt, and no record of any.
In legal briefs, Burkardt's attorneys said she quickly worked to find an independent attorney to draft Strobel's will. That attorney, Stephen P. Paschall, met briefly with Strobel on Sept. 2, 2003, and prepared a will that gave $5,000 and $10,000 to Strobel's nieces and left about $280,000 to the Burkardts.
Paschall told the court that Strobel wanted to reduce the inheritance given to the two relatives because they received money from her late sister's estate. Strobel "felt they had enough money," Burkardt's attorneys state in court documents.
Paschall -- who previously worked with Burkardt on estate planning -- declined to comment on the case.
Lawyers for Strobel's family attacked Paschall's role in drafting the will. Paschall testified he met with Strobel for 30 to 45 minutes -- with Burkardt present about half the time -- to draw up the document. Paschall's office manager served as a witness for the will even though she was not present for its signing, the attorneys said.
The lawyers noted Pascall never examined Strobel's medical records or talked to the elderly woman's doctors before drafting the will to determine her mental competency.
In finding for Strobel's relatives, the judge accepted the argument that Burkardt "has habitually violated her fiduciary duties as an attorney to benefit herself, her family and her business associates."
One client, Esther Severn, loaned $43,500 to Burkardt's real-estate partnership and another $200,000 to one of Burkardt's partners in the Oaks Theater. The loans came within a year of Severn's death in February 2003 at age 94, according to the findings. Burkardt also was involved in selling two clients' properties to her relatives or a business partner, the ruling states.
Marc Serrao, who co-owns the Oaks Theater with Burkardt and another woman, declined to discuss the $200,000 loan he received. Burkardt told the court the loans were made because Severn wanted a higher rate of return, records show.
"She's an upstanding, excellent attorney who's never lacked integrity in anything she's done with me," said Serrao, 44, owner of the Oakmont Bakery.
Russ Truby -- who owns Burket-Truby Funeral Home in Oakmont and co-owns three or four Oakmont rental properties with Burkardt under the name Daniel Ross Enterprises -- said he bought the late Anthony V. Tedesco's home in Oakmont through Burkardt only after he first spoke with Tedesco's daughters. Real estate records show the property sold for $300,000 in June 2004.
Truby declined to discuss the financial details of the transaction.
"Knowing Meg, I just feel she would do everything that's above-board," said Truby, 52, of Oakmont. "I have a high regard for her."
