Latham v. Father Divine
Court of Appeals of New York
85 N.E.2d 168 (1949)
Lyon's existing will left almost her entire estate to Father Divine and associates (defendants); her cousins (plaintiffs) alleged that after she expressed a wish to revoke that will (having already hired an attorney who drafted a new one), she was killed during an unauthorized surgery performed by a doctor hired by Father Divine before she could execute the new will or revoke the old one, and that under the unexecuted will the cousins would have inherited substantially. The trial court ruled for the cousins, but the Appellate Division dismissed the complaint, and the cousins appealed.
Whether, where a beneficiary of a will prevents the testator from executing a new will in favor of another party by fraud, duress or undue influence, and the testator dies without executing the new will or revoking the old one, a constructive trust may be placed on the bequest to the beneficiary benefiting from his fraud.