EDWARDSVILLE — Two sisters are suing an attorney for allegedly failing to obtain a signature on their mother's will, resulting in a portion of her estate going to their late brother's children.
Colleen Wilkerson and Sharon Hudlin-Morris filed a complaint Dec. 9 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Edward McCarthy.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are the two surviving daughters whose mother died in 2020. They allege that their mother retained McCarthy to draft her will in 2012 and then again in 2018 after their brother died. They further allege their mother "wished her estate" to go to them and that "no portion" of their mother's estate was to go to "her then late son's children."
The plaintiffs claim McCarthy failed to secure signatures on either one of their mother's wills and that they "were obvious and intended third party beneficiaries" of the wills McCarthy drafted for their mother. They also claim that due to McCarthy's failure to use reasonable care, their mother's assets "will pass under the intestacy laws" and reduce their inheritance shares by more than $50,000.
The plaintiffs allege McCarthy admitted to failing to get the wills signed and agreed that their mother "had intended" for them to "take all of the mother's estate equally."
The plaintiffs seek monetary relief of more than $50,000 and all other just relief. They are represented by Thomas Maag of The Maag Law Firm LLC in Wood River.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 20-L-001733