Litigants in Surrogate’s Court cases and Supreme Court guardianship matters often bring claims challenging transactions to which elderly and infirm individuals were parties. Will contests are an obvious example of this as they have been around for time immemorial and they almost always include claims that the testator lacked the requisite mental capacity to form a testamentary instrument and that the will was the product of undue influence.

These same claims are applied in other contexts too, such as challenges to transactions that confer some pecuniary benefit or another, such as inter vivos asset transfers, contracts, the formation of trusts, and even marriages, to name just a few.