She says he altered the will after her husband's death. A brother was disinherited.
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
Published July 15, 2005
DADE CITY - A Wesley Chapel woman filed suit against her son Wednesday, accusing him of duping her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Helen Dowdy's lawsuit accuses son Dennis of changing the will of her late husband, Stanton, after his death, disinheriting a brother and fraudulently obtaining a share of, then selling, the couple's property.
By changing the will and having his parents sign a deed over to him, the lawsuit said, Dennis Dowdy tricked his 85-year-old mother out of $375,000.
The mother wants a circuit judge to throw out the altered will and make the son pay her everything he made from the sale.
Stanton Dowdy filed his will Dec. 3, 1996. A year and four days later he suffered a debilitating stroke, according to the lawsuit.
Helen Dowdy was her husband's sole caretaker until his death, the stroke leaving him incapable of making legal decisions for himself.
Soon after the stroke, the mother asked son Dennis to help sell property the couple owned in Lake County.
She agreed to give him power of attorney.
But according to the suit, Dennis Dowdy told his mother she had to sign a quit-claim deed to him. She and her husband signed it Jan. 7, 1998.
Except Dowdy didn't know that by signing such a deed she turned ownership of the property over to her son, according to the suit.
"At no time was it the intent of the plaintiff to give the property . . . to her son," the suit said.
The suit said in 2000 Dennis Dowdy called his mother, arranging for Stanton to sign some documents.
It was Aug. 22, 2000. That same day, the suit said, Dennis Dowdy used another quit-claim deed to give half of the Lake County property to himself, half to his mother.
"The plaintiff was not informed, nor aware" of it, the suit said, nor was it reported to the Internal Revenue Service as a gift.
After 64 years of marriage, Stanton Dowdy died on Aug. 15, 2003, at age 85. The suit said Helen Dowdy was the sole beneficiary of his will, which set up family and marital trusts for her benefit.
Six months after his death, according to the suit, the son filed the documents he had Stanton Dowdy sign back in 2000: It was a change in the will.
The altered will disinherited another son, Frederick Dowdy, and appointed Dennis Dowdy as personal representative of the estate.
It was filed Jan. 12, 2004, in Pasco County. But it was "obtained through undue influence," the suit said, and Stanton Dowdy was incapable of approving it. Helen Dowdy's suit said she didn't learn about it until Feb. 10.
The Lake County property sold on March 5, 2004. But the lawsuit said Helen Dowdy never received her share of the sale.
Tampa lawyer Patricia Carroll said neither she nor her client, Helen Dowdy, would comment. Dennis Dowdy, who lives in Tampa, could not be reached Thursday.
Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
