The widow and daughter of a onetime Bank of New York executive have sued his son, daughter-in-law, Morgan Stanley, a financial advisor and others in a case involving the late banker's estate, alleging they perpetrated "egregious harms" against him while he was elderly, vulnerable, injured and experiencing dementia.
Joseph A. Grimaldi, who was chairman and CEO of BNY Financial Corp., a former Bank of New York commercial finance unit, was 83 in 2021 when he fell while alone at home, according to the lawsuit filed last week in the New York Supreme Court in Nassau County.
The defendants also include Grimaldi's matrimonial lawyer, his cardiologist and a hospital that treated him.
The defendants, "acting in concert, exploited Mr. Grimaldi's incapacities to isolate him from his wife and daughter, to seize control of his personal affairs and medical care, to exploit his finances, and to systematically dismantle his long-standing estate plan for their own enrichment," the complaint alleges.
The cardiologist and the lawyer "orchestrated Mr. Grimaldi's improper discharge" from a hospital to his estranged son's custody, the complaint alleges. "At the time, Mr. Grimaldi was severely disoriented and medically unstable" following the fall, it contends.
Grimaldi's widow and daughter brought the suit as intended beneficiaries and estate representatives, the complaint states. His widow was his second wife "with whom he had a loving relationship of more than 25 years," the lawsuit says. "Although a difficulty persisted for sometime, Mr. Grimaldi remained effusive about his love for (her) until his passing" in 2024.
After the hospital discharge in 2021, the son "spirited his father away from the hospital and isolated him in a hotel in Manhattan and commenced a campaign of financial predation," the lawsuit alleges.
Soon, the son, assisted by Morgan Stanley, a Morgan Stanley financial advisor and other defendants, "caused Mr. Grimaldi to execute new advance directives, a new last will, and other financial documents that disinherited his wife and daughter … and redirected his multimillion-dollar estate" to the son, the complaint alleges.
The son "then proceeded to abuse his father's financial accounts for the benefit of himself and his wife," it contends.
The lawyer named as a defendant in the case procured the elder Grimaldi's signature in May 2021 on a new power of attorney and health care proxy, naming the son as agent and revoking the wife's authority, the complaint alleges, calling the POA fraudulently obtained.
The son, with help from Morgan Stanley and the advisor, "began to improperly liquidate and transfer his father's assets," the complaint alleges. The suit, among other allegations, accuses the son of transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from his father's bank accounts and canceling an American Express card his sister used for her medical insurance, which ended as a result.
He and his wife "used Mr. Grimaldi's funds for their personal enrichment, including excessive spending on luxury hotels, expensive meals, and, upon information and belief, funding their wedding in Italy," the complaint alleges.
The defendants also failed to provide for Grimaldi's critical medical needs, the suit alleges, stating he "missed two scheduled PET scans that were critical for managing his dementia, multiple eye doctor appointments to treat his glaucoma, as well as dental appointments which resulted in the necessity for emergency dental surgery" that his daughter arranged, the lawsuit contends.
The complaint also accuses the son, daughter-in-law and lawyer of leaving Grimaldi alone "for hours and days at a time in a hotel room, and instructed hotel personnel to refuse (his daughter and wife) admission to see Mr. Grimaldi and to refuse to forward their calls to his room."
Among other points, the complaint alleges that Grimaldi's wife was listed as his primary contact and held his health care proxy, and that she was told he wouldn't be ready for hospital discharge before April 26, 2021. A hospital nurse told her that Grimaldi's son planned to pick up his father on April 24, the suit says.
The suit alleges that the lawyer, after the son contacted him, called Grimaldi's doctor and falsely represented that the wife and Mr. Grimaldi were "divorced" and that she "should have no say in his medical care."
The suit, which seeks an estimated more than $10 million in compensatory damages, alleges Grimaldi had designated his daughter, who has a chronic illness and financially depended on him, as sole beneficiary of a multimillion-dollar Morgan Stanley account.
Morgan Stanley had no comment on the case, a spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor by email Monday. A message sent to an email address believed to belong to Grimaldi's son received no response Monday.
The online court record does not yet show attorneys representing the defendants.
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