Wednesday, September 27, 2000
Relatives, Humane Society fight over will
By John Seewer
The Associated Press
SANDUSKY, Ohio — On the surface, it's a simple battle over a will. Only this time, the heirs are animals and a northern Ohio humane society shelter.
Family members of a woman who left the shelter $325,000 so it could take care of her cat are contesting the will.
They say that the will was altered and that Ruth Ann Lovett was under stress from medication when she signed it.
An Erie County jury will decide whether the animals or the family gets the money.
Closing arguments are scheduled for this morning, and the jury should begin deliberating later in the day.
Ms. Lovett wrote in her will, dated Sept. 6, 1989, that her relatives didn't need her money.
“All my life I have been an animal lover, and specifically had cats as my friends and companions,” she wrote.
About three months after she died in 1996, the Humane Society of Erie County put her 18-year-old Siamese cat, named Sinbad, to sleep because of kidney failure. That's when the battle over the will began.
The humane society said it was entitled to the money, while the relatives said they should get it.
Gary Yontz, Ms. Lovett's financial adviser, said Ms. Lovett made it clear that she wanted her entire estate turned over to the humane society.
“She said she wasn't close to any of her other relatives,” Mr. Yontz said. “She said she was fond of animals.”
Mr. Yontz told jurors Tuesday that Ms. Lovett often talked about her cat and that it “was always there by her side.”
Not all of Ms. Lovett's family members are contesting the will.
Richard BeVier, a nephew of hers, found Ms. Lovett's will after she died. He read it and said that she had indeed left all of the money to the shelter, so he did not join the lawsuit.
During cross-examination, Mr. BeVier said that if parts of the will had been changed, he probably would not have been able to notice.
His sister, Lori BeVier, also noted that part of the lawsuit described the cat as skittish and said it “ran like a streak” — drawing chuckles from the jurors.
It is primarily Ms. Lovett's nieces and nephews who are contesting the will.
On Monday, a forensic document examiner, Harold Rodin, told jurors that the first two pages of the will had fewer staple holes in them than the next two pages. He said that could indicate there was tampering with the documents.
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