Fraud is Closely Related With Undue Influence

IRWIN N. PERR, MD, JD This article appears on pages 15-22 of the Bulletin of the AAPL, Vol IX, No. 1. The AAPL is the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law. Dr. Perr served as its president during the mid-1980's.

An example of fraud is the situation where one influences a testator that another relative has stirred up trouble ... Fraud involves trick, deception, artifice; the testator is deceived and influenced by false statements. False representations must be inter-mingled with importunities and attempts to influence to establish a claim offraud. Fraud may be shown by a single act, while undue influence usuallyembraces a course of conduct.

Most important from the psychiatric standpoint is the principle that undue influence which will invalidate a will depends to a considerabledegree upon the intellectual capacity and other factors related to mental statuswhich may interfere with the person's judgemental and dispositionalcapacities. Obviously, it requires much less influence to control the will of a person whose functional abilities have been severely impaired by mental illness or physical conditions which affect mental functioning. A lesserdegree of intoxication or other impairment is required to establish undue influence than is necessary to maintain a claim of testamentary capacity.