Church loses bid to overturn will and claim $252,000

A judge ruled that a Hastings woman's estate should go to her friend, rather than to the church that she believed had turned its back on her and her husband during his final illness and death.

By Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune

Last update: November 13, 2007 - 7:58 PM

For several years, Mary Schiller planned to leave most of her possessions to the church she and her husband had joined in the early 1980s.

But four years ago, the childless Hastings woman, miffed by what she considered the Harbor Church's indifference during her husband's last illness and death, signed a new will leaving her $252,000 estate to a longtime friend who cared for her.

After Schiller died last year at age 81, the Cottage Grove church sued, claiming that she had been confused and pressured into changing her will. But a Dakota County judge ruled Tuesday that the church had failed to prove that Schiller had been anything less than the strong-willed woman her friends remembered.

Church officials "were upset that they were out of the will, and took whatever legal action they could to get the rest of the estate," said Minneapolis attorney Cliff Knippel, who represented Schiller's estate and its executor and main beneficiary, Susan Andrea.

In a 14-page decision, District Judge Richard Spicer stated that no clear evidence had been shown that Schiller didn't know what she was doing in November 2003 when she decided to leave her Hastings townhouse, $23,000 in life insurance and nearly $4,000 in personal property to Andrea rather than the church.

In a written statement, Pastor Marv Johnson of the nondenominational Christian congregation said that church officials wouldn't comment on the court order until they had the chance to review it.

"The Harbor Church challenged Mary Schiller's will based on numerous reports from Ms. Schiller's family and friends that she, as a vulnerable adult, had been taken advantage of by others," he said in the statement. If the church had been successful, he said, it would have donated the money to another religious and charitable organization.

According to court documents, the Schillers met Andrea and her husband at Jubilee Christian Church, which later became the Harbor, in the early 1980s. The women grew close and prayed weekly, and Andrea offered support when Schiller's husband was ill.

Mary Schiller was upset that Pastor Jim Anderson of the Harbor Church hadn't visited her husband's sickbed or allowed their former pastor to deliver the eulogy at his funeral, according to court documents. Shortly after her husband's death in September 2003, Schiller told her attorney that she had given "enough money" to the church.

She changed her will so that the Harbor, which had been promised 85 percent of her estate, got nothing. Most of it instead went to Andrea, who Schiller said had been a trusted adviser and caregiver.

From 1998 to 2006, the Harbor Church received nearly $71,000 from the Schillers, including proceeds from two insurance policies. Despite those gifts, Anderson testified in court that he didn't go to Mary Schiller's funeral in April 2006.

Schiller's attorney, James Prichard of Northfield, testified that Schiller was of sound mind when she signed her final will on Nov. 25, 2003, and that he had seen no signs that Andrea had twisted her arm. Schiller's doctor said that she wasn't diagnosed with dementia until 2005 and that she had shown no signs of decline before then.

"It was justice that was done here," Knippel said. "It was too bad that there had to be litigation over this."

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455

Kevin Duchschere • kduchschere@startribune.com

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