Boston cancer researcher accused of tricking distant relative with dementia into changing her will to get apartment
A local cancer researcher is accused of tricking a distant relative who was suffering from dementia into changing her will to inherit her New York City apartment.
Ann Marie Egloff, who’s affiliated with both Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been sued in New York Supreme Court in connection with the disputed will.
The daughter of the late Jo Ann Paganetti recently brought the lawsuit against Egloff. The daughter, Georgia Lee Sarah Andrews, is trying to block the Boston researcher from selling the Upper East Side apartment, which is reportedly valued at around $750,000.
Egloff, of Somerville, was Paganetti’s second cousin.
“My mother’s godson, Greg Bentley (in life, my mother’s close friend, power of attorney and health care proxy) informed me that Ann Marie Egloff… had been attempting to have my mother sign new estate planning documents during the year before her death,” reads Andrews’ lawsuit against Egloff.
“Undoubtedly, Ann Marie knew my mother suffered from dementia,” Andrews added in the suit.
Paganetti had put Andrews up for adoption in 1969 when she was 2 years old.
Then, Paganetti later unsuccessfully litigated with The New York Foundling Hospital to have the adoption set aside.
“My birth mother made purposeful efforts to find me during her life,” the lawsuit reads. “She informed me that I was her daughter and I maintained a relationship with her.”
Paganetti executed a will in 1986 that designated Andrews as her beneficiary, according to the suit.
But then decades later, Egloff allegedly duped Paganetti into changing her will.
“Upon information and belief, these estate planning documents named Ann Marie as the primary beneficiary of my mother’s estate and revoked Greg’s power of attorney and health care proxy,” the lawsuit reads.
Paganetti’s mental state had been deteriorating over the last several years, according to Andrews.
“These medical records indicate that a neurologist diagnosed her with a neurogenerative disorder and Alzheimer’s/Parkinson’s dementia, and was experiencing rapid memory loss,” the suit states.
Paganetti had been a professor for many years at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She was reportedly let go from there two years ago due to her “increasingly deteriorating mental condition.”
“I also learned that many neighbors and staff in the co-op had troubling interactions with my mother,” Andrews wrote. “They all reported concern for my mother’s well-being and indicated that she does not seem capable of living independently due to her deteriorating mental condition.”
She eventually suffered a fall and was admitted to the Upper East Side Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. There, she was diagnosed with dementia.
Meanwhile, Egloff is accused of taking steps to “isolate” Paganetti from the rest of her family in the year before her death.
The Jo Ann Paganetti Irrevocable Trust was executed in March and the shares were transferred in April, 12 days before she died. Then Egloff last month entered into a contract to sell the shares.
“In order to preserve the status quo, this Court should enjoin the sale of the Shares pending the determination of my claims to declare my mother was judicially incompetent, the Trust as invalid, the transfer of the Shares to the Trust void ab initio, and to rescind the transfer of the Shares to the purported Trust,” the lawsuit reads.
Egloff did not immediately respond to comment on Monday.
