Lawyer loses adoption, property appeal

Published 6:00 am Friday, December 14, 2001

The Mississippi Supreme Court Thursday upheld a lower courtruling voiding the 1986 adoption of a Brookhaven attorney by anelderly Amite County woman. A decision to set aside a deed and willleaving the woman’s property to the attorney was also upheld.

In a unanimous decision, the high court affirmed Fourth DistrictChancellor Hollis McGehee’s ruling in the case involving attorneyMichael Cupit and Mary Lea Reid.

“We are pleased that the supreme court allowed the lower courtruling to stand,” said Michael Taylor, one of attorneysrepresenting Thomas J. Pluskat, one of Reid’s heirs.

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When contacted Thursday, Cupit referred questions to hisattorney James Robertson.

“We’re very disappointed, and we will be filing a motion forrehearing,” Robertson said.

In his March 2000 ruling, McGehee cited undue influence andbreach of trust issues in voiding Reid’s will leaving Cupit herAmite County property, including the family’s antebellum home andother belongings, following her death in July 1997. Reid’s adoptionof Cupit was also set aside, and he was ordered to return assets orpay back the estate the value of any assets gained during what wasdescribed as an “inappropriate relationship” with the woman.

In his appeal to the supreme court, Cupit argued statute oflimitation issues involving the deed and will and whether the lowercourt erred in voiding them because of undue influence and fraud.In its six-page ruling, the high court rejected the attorney’sarguments.

“The peculiar and troubling circumstances of this case requirethat the deed be set aside and that the statute of limitationsconcerning the deed be overlooked,” the high court wrote, whilealso saying the statute of limitations did not prevent Pluskat fromchallenging the adult adoption.

Cupit’s relationship with Reid began in 1979, when he was 24 andshe was 79.

Cupit represented the relationship as that of a mother and son.However, chancellor found the relationship went beyond that,considering 1982 letters from Reid to Cupit indicating “an intimaterelationship of some nature” between the two people.

Reid adopted Cupit in 1986. In his ruling, McGehee found theadoption was the product of a “long term plan and scheme concoctedand obtained by Cupit by fraud and overreaching.”

“Mrs. Reid’s family is pleased the courts recognized thefraudulent nature of Mr. Cupit’s conduct,” Taylor said.