## Facts

- Laura Marie Lowrie created a 1989 trust and pour-over will placing most assets in trust; her son Sheldon was first successor trustee and primary beneficiary if he survived her, and her granddaughter Lynelle was second successor trustee and a contingent major beneficiary.
- The 1989 plan gave Lynelle one of Lowrie’s residences at death and left Lowrie’s other two children smaller cash bequests.
- After Lowrie’s husband died, Sheldon increasingly controlled Lowrie’s personal and financial affairs, including operation of the family airplane-parts business.
- The trial court found Sheldon isolated and neglected Lowrie, including restricting family contact, limiting her communications, delaying medical care, and failing to assist with hygiene.
- While Lowrie was dependent on Sheldon, estate-related changes benefited Sheldon and reduced Lynelle’s interests, including a 1992 trust amendment reducing Lynelle’s residence gift to a cash payment, transfers of property to Sheldon, and Lowrie’s resignation as trustee with Sheldon taking control of trust assets.
- After Lowrie’s death, Lynelle sued Sheldon under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (EADACPA), seeking to void the amendment and transfers, obtain elder-abuse damages (including pain and suffering), attorney’s fees and costs, and punitive damages.
- The superior court found elder abuse by clear and convincing evidence (neglect, isolation, and financial abuse), awarded compensatory damages and statutory fees and costs, imposed punitive damages, and ordered relief that treated Sheldon as effectively disinherited.
- Sheldon appealed from the judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether a decedent’s granddaughter and heir has standing under Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657, subdivision (d), to bring and maintain an EADACPA civil action on behalf of a deceased elder.
2. Whether substantial evidence supported the trial court’s findings of elder abuse and the resulting compensatory and pain-and-suffering damages and statutory attorney’s fees and costs.
3. Whether punitive damages were procedurally and legally permissible on the record presented.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment for Lynelle.
- The court held Lynelle, as the decedent’s granddaughter and heir, had standing under Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657(d) to prosecute the elder-abuse action after the elder’s death.
- The court concluded substantial evidence supported the trial court’s findings of neglect, isolation, and financial abuse constituting elder abuse.
- The court upheld the damages awards, including pain-and-suffering damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and punitive damages.
- The court left intact the remedial effect of the judgment denying Sheldon the benefits of his wrongdoing, including relief that treated him as having predeceased the decedent for distribution purposes.

## Legal Principles

- Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657(d) confers standing on specified survivors or representatives, including an heir, to bring or continue an elder-abuse civil action on behalf of a deceased elder when statutory requirements are met.
- EADACPA is construed to further legislative purposes of private enforcement and preventing wrongdoers from profiting from elder abuse, including ensuring claims do not abate upon the elder’s death.
- Statutory elder abuse includes neglect and isolation, as well as financial abuse involving wrongful taking or obtaining control over an elder’s property.
- When EADACPA’s heightened proof and findings requirements are satisfied, available remedies may include pain-and-suffering damages that survive death, attorney’s fees and costs, and punitive damages.
- Courts may award relief affecting inheritance rights to prevent an abuser from benefiting from abusive conduct proven in the action.

## Conclusion

The Court of Appeal affirmed an elder-abuse judgment against a decedent’s son and held that the decedent’s granddaughter, as an heir, had standing under Welfare and Institutions Code section 15657(d) to pursue elder-abuse claims after the elder’s death, including statutory damages, fees, and punitive damages, and relief preventing the abuser from taking under the estate plan.


In re Estate of Lowrie, 118 Cal. App. 4th 220, 12 Cal. Rptr. 3d 828 (Ct. App. 2004)