Will Mock Trial

I am the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, both Addison Heeney-Potter and Alexi Heeney-Potter. As they seek comfort and try to sort through their mothers’ uncaring and weak mess, I am here to support them and show that Estelle Heeney-Potter was in fact hopeful to leave her daughters with full inheritance and provide that she showed them a sort of love that she could not while she was with them. She in fact didn’t dislike them in any way; she just didn’t know how to handle them and couldn’t face the fact that she wasn’t being the mother she had always dreamed of being for her children. The fact happens to be that the pet caretaker in the property, Riley Rendlow, altered Estelle’s thinking and took advantage of her non-confrontational and smooth running ways in the household. Rendlow knew that Estelle was easily persuaded just because of the fact that she wanted to avoid trouble at all costs and keep everyone happy with no fuss. I am going to show you the whole story, and multiple pieces of evidence against Ms. Rendlow and her shady moves upon the family.

Riley Rendlow cares about nobody but herself. She was willing to make Mrs. Heeney-Potter’s daughters even more confused and miserable than they already were in the first place after having a rough emotional and relational relationship with their mother. At first meeting, Riley was an innocent volunteer at the animal rescue, just trying to find good homes for the animals. However, when things progressed as Estelle obtained Homer and Bessie, and then asked Rendlow to house/pet sit for her while she was traveling, things really escalated. Riley knew about the family’s wealth at that point and even said that she was excited and curious about seeing the house and property. She then proceeded to kiss up to Estelle in hopes of becoming closer and more trustworthy. Her attempt worked with the soft side of Estelle and she was eventually asked to stay on living full time at the estate as caretaker of the animals. Riley was thrilled, as her plan was working. As she grew to know Estelle better and better, she started to see that she could get whatever she wanted by being a pain, bugging until Estelle gave into her.

Rendlow in fact altered the will, mostly by brainwashing Mrs. Heeney-Potter and using her manipulative ways to ensure she continued to be spoiled no matter what. Although the plane crash was accidental, making Mrs. Heeney-Potter’s death also accidental, Riley had been planning a way to get more out of her. She may not have been planning a full on murder, but let’s just say that it was a ‘nice coincidence’ on her part that Estelle’s plane went down. Now, all of the kissing up that Rendlow had done would pay off when she saw exactly what the will said. She saw that her manipulating had paid off and she was now more important than Estelle’s own children. All children deserve a mother’s love and affection. However, neither of Estelle’s girls ever truly received that from her. Although she provided them with all the money and things they’d ever need, money can’t give them true joy and happiness. Growing up without a mother can be painful and can leave permanent scars. Alexi and Addison are now made up of the way their mother raised them. Instead of being open and loving themselves, they are completely focused on their intense careers.

While they are working diligently, they don’t have to think about anything but the present and the hurt from their past is temporarily forgotten. Even so, sometimes they find themselves caught up in thought about how their mother would send a nanny to their aid if they got hurt or needed a hug or when she would simply walk away from her crying or complaining daughters when all they really wanted was affection. Perhaps Estelle also had a rough emotionally detached childhood, but even so, one would think she’d want to make her daughters’ lives better than hers was. She just simply couldn’t do it. Perhaps this all came from Mrs. Heeney-Potter’s own childhood. When she was a little girl, she was neglected in an even worse way. She never knew her biological parents and at a young age was placed in a foster home through an agency. She may as well have been kept in the orphanage she came from, because her foster parents somehow passed the requirements for the agency, but were actually terrible choices for ‘parents’.

They would constantly ignore Estelle and they would be drunk all of the time. She found herself many times in bad situations with drugs and her foster parents would go missing for days at a time, leaving her to fend completely for herself. This directly relates to why Estelle may be so determined to avoid all conflict. Even after all of the situations and trouble that Rendlow has put everyone through, it is evident that the will is in fact invalid. Riley Rendlow influenced Estelle when she was writing it, or else she would’ve kept the one that her husband had shared with her. It doesn’t make sense that Estelle would’ve knowingly created a trust where Riley Rendlow would be the biggest recipient, having almost unlimited access to tons of money that she can spend in any way she wants to. Also, she is provided with a crazy salary, huge house and health insurance. Not only are the details outrageous, but Rendlow is using the money for things outside of what was specified in the will, which is wrong and even more suspicious. One more point is that there are excessive amounts of money to cover everything that is in the will. Although Mrs. Heeney-Potter surely loves her pets, Winn, the nanny, stated that she often referred to them as dirty and gross and often kept them outside.

A mother wouldn’t rightly leave more money to her animals and their caretaker over her own children. Everything and all of the evidence clearly points to a very greedy, inconsiderate and kniving character and that person is Riley Rendlow. A statute in the documentation states: “A trust for the care of one or more designated domestic or pet animals is valid. The trust terminates when no living animal is covered by the trust. A governing instrument shall be liberally construed to bring the transfer within this Section, to presume against a merely precatory or honorary nature of its disposition, and to carry out the general intent of the transferor. Extrinsic evidence is admissible in determining the transferor’s intent. A trust for the care of one or more designated domestic or pet animals is subject to the following provisions: Except as expressly provided otherwise in the instrument creating the trust, no portion of the principal or income of the trust may be converted to the use of the trustee or to a use other than for the trust’s purposes or for the benefit of a covered animal.” This piece shows that Riley is completely in the wrong and is using the money in illegal ways. Perhaps knowing the daughters best of all was Winn Robinson.

She pretty much raised the girls and knows the family well enough to set things straight. She cannot see Estelle ignoring her children forever and then leaving them nothing in her will. She also thinks that Estelle would’ve wanted the original will to be the primary one, because it is the rightful and fair one, providing justice to the girls and family. She recalls Mrs. Heeney-Potter being “easily swayed when it came to making things easier and more agreeable in the household.” She was a lenient parent and wasn’t bitter, just not hands-on. She hated complaining and pestering, so it wasn’t hard to get her to give in to whatever the girls wanted. Addison and Alexi deserve the last of their mother, the inheritance and Riley Rendlow needs to be punished for what she’s done to upset the peace and create trouble in the family. Ms. Robinson says it well when she states, “It seems there are no winners in this case. Someone is going to be hurt by Mrs. Heeney-Potter’s actions. I hope it’s not the children, her proper heirs.”