Several colleges and other beneficiaries of a late West Hartford woman’s $3.6 million estate have agreed to settle a dispute involving changes made to her will after she was diagnosed with dementia and allegations that others sought to take advantage of her, The Associated Press reports.
A trial in the case of art teacher Lucille Diorio’s fortune was scheduled to begin this week in West Hartford Probate Court, but a preliminary settlement agreement was reached on Jan. 5. A probate court judge has scheduled a hearing on the matter for Thursday.
The longtime West Hartford resident was 89 when she died in April 2009. Her husband, Anthony, an aviation company executive, died in 1999. Their only child, Jeanne, died of meningitis in 1963 when she was a freshman at the University of Hartford.
The dispute involving Diorio’s estate centered on two people who were close to her at the end of her life and who stood to gain a combined $1.3 million after her 2005 will was changed in 2006. The proposed settlement would throw out the 2006 will and largely restore the earlier version, with some changes.
