The Pennsylvania Superior Court, providing guidance into what is necessary for a viable claim for intentional interference with an inheritance, has affirmed a Lancaster County trial judge's dismissal of a woman's claims that her sister and her mother's lawyer tried to diminish her portion of her mother's estate.

A three-judge panel in Fiedler v. Spencer, consisting of Judges Anne Lazarus, Victor Stabile and Alice Dubow, rejected plaintiff E. O'Rean Fiedler's appeal in her case against Lancaster lawyer Patti Spencer and Fiedler's sister, Latisha Bitts.

According to the precedential April 2 opinion by Lazarus, Fiedler and Bitts were named co-executives with power of attorney of their mother Betty Fiedler's estate following their father's death in 2004. E. O'Rean Fiedler alleges that Betty Fiedler subsequently named Bitts as the sole executor and that the defendants pressured Betty Fiedler to give monetary gifts from the estate to deplete her estate, including giving Bitts' son, Adam Buckius, $330,000 to buy a house.

The trial judge dismissed E. O'Rean Fiedler's third amended complaint for failure to state a claim of tortious interference. Fiedler argued that the court should have regarded the gifts as an attempt to diminish her eventual inheritance.

Spencer countered that inter vivos gifts cannot be the basis of a tortious interference lawsuit in Pennsylvania.

"We agree with attorney Spencer that, even assuming as true the well-pleaded facts of Fiedler's third amended complaint and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, Fiedler cannot sustain an action for intentional interference with an inheritance under Pennsylvania law," Lazarus said. "Fiedler does not allege that Betty expressed an intent to alter her will to benefit Fiedler, or that attorney Spencer prevented the execution of such a will."

Lazarus continued, "Rather, at most, the facts pleaded by Fiedler establish that attorney Spencer: (1) prepared a power of attorney for Betty naming Bitts as sole agent and (2) erroneously advised Bitts as to the propriety of certain inter vivos transfers that, when made by Bitts, resulted in a reduction in the value of Betty's probate estate. Accordingly, Fiedler is unable to satisfy the elements required to prove intentional interference with an inheritance under the law of this commonwealth."

The court also denied Fiedler's appeal for punitive damages.

"Here, Fiedler failed to plead a viable cause of action for either tortious interference with inheritance or civil conspiracy to commit that act. As one cannot recover punitive damages independent of an underlying cause of action, the trial court properly dismissed Fiedler's claim for punitive damages," Lazarus said.

The plaintiff is represented by Lancaster-based attorney Stephen Blair. Blair did not respond to a request for comment.

Spencer is represented by Edwin Schwartz of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin's Camp Hill office and did not respond to a request for comment.