Undue Influence: Definitions and Applications - California Courts ...

guardian/ward, physician or nurse/patient, parent/child, and husband/wife. All of these have
been held to be confidential relationships. 28
It should be noted that in California there is a presumption of invalidity for gifts made to
certain individuals under California Probate Code §21350. For example, an instrument is invalid
if it makes a gift to the person who drafted it. This means that a presumption of undue influence
arises when an attorney actively participates in procuring or executing a will in which he is a
beneficiary, whether or not the benefit to the attorney was undue. 29
The provisions of Section
21350 prevent those in fiduciary relationships with a testator from obtaining gifts through the use
of undue influence or overbearing behavior. 30
2. How Statutes From Other Areas of California Law Define Undue Influence
California Probate Code §6104 provides that the “execution or revocation of a will or a
part of a will is ineffective to the extent the execution or revocation was procured by duress,
menace, fraud or undue influence.” 31
While the Probate Code offers undue influence as one of
the grounds under which a will can be contested, it does not provide its own definition of undue
influence. Instead, the definition of undue influence comes for the California Civil Code, which
does not specifically pertain to probate matters, but rather civil matters in general.
The California Civil Code defines undue influence as:
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1. The use, by one in whom a confidence is reposed by another, or who holds a
real or apparent authority over him, of such confidence or authority for the purpose of
obtaining an unfair advantage over him;
28 Cote, Michael J., Undue Influence in Execution of Wills, American Jurisprudence Proof of Facts 2d, 109.
29 Estate of Auen (1994) 30 Cal.App.4 th 300.
30 Cote, citing Osorine v. Weingarten (2004) 124 Cal.App.4 th 304.
31 California Probate Code §6014 (emphasis added).
32 California Civil Code §1575.
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