Spokane judge bars two Douglass heirs from a $1bn estate under Washington's financial-abuser law

On 26 October 2026, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn High-Edward ruled that two children of the late Washington property developer Harlan Douglass had unduly influenced their father to rewrite his will, and that they had financially exploited a vulnerable adult. Under Washington law, the second finding means they cannot inherit from him at all. The ruling has so far been reported in detail only by The Spokesman-Review, which quotes from the 58-page judgment; other outlets have followed its account.

What the court decided

Harlan Douglass died on 26 November 2023, aged 86, after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. A 2018 will split his estate equally between his three children, Harley, Lanzce and Stacey. A will signed on 2 May 2019 gave Lanzce 65%, Stacey 35% and Harley $1,000.

The judge reinstated the 2018 will. She also voided promissory notes worth about $155 million in favour of Lanzce, Stacey and their children, and set aside the transfer to Lanzce and Stacey of four properties that had earlier been given to Harley. Harley’s lawyer, Steve Hassing, puts the estate at about $600 million and the four properties at about $350 million, which takes the total in dispute past $1 billion, the newspaper reported on 1 November.

The judgment describes Harlan at an April 2019 meeting as 82, reliant on others to read and explain documents, unable to decipher numbers and unable to pay his bills on his own. The court found the testimony of Lanzce, Stacey and Harlan’s partner, Jeri Via, on key events “not credible”.

This is the family’s second such defeat. In 2023 another Spokane judge, Raymond Clary, set aside a 2019 deed that had removed Harley as a beneficiary of his mother Maxine’s estate. The appeals court upheld that decision in February 2026.

The statute that does the work

Undue influence alone would have restored the 2018 will and given each sibling a third. The abuser finding goes further. Chapter 11.84 of the Revised Code of Washington, the state’s slayer statute, was extended in 2009 to cover anyone who takes part in the “willful and unlawful financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult”. No criminal conviction is needed: a civil court finding on “clear, cogent, and convincing evidence” is conclusive. The abuser is then treated as having died before the deceased.

That rule leaves one question open. If Lanzce and Stacey are deemed to have predeceased their father, their two-thirds may pass to their own children under the 2018 will, or to Harley. Hassing told the newspaper he is preparing a petition asking the court to decide. The statute also lets an abuser inherit if the court finds the deceased knew of the exploitation and later confirmed the gift, though nothing reported suggests that applies here.

Stacey’s lawyer, Karolyn Hicks, said the decision was “wrong on several legal points” and that an appeal will follow. Lanzce’s lawyer declined to comment.

What it means for families and their advisers

The Douglass ruling shows how much can be unwound once capacity is in doubt. The will, the promissory notes and the property transfers signed in the same period all fell together. Where a principal shows cognitive decline, families and family offices should expect late changes to wills and lifetime gifts to be tested against medical evidence and the circumstances of each signing, including who drafted the papers and who was in the room. In states with a financial-abuser rule like Washington’s, a beneficiary who drives those changes risks losing their entire inheritance, including the share they would have received anyway. Independent advice for the principal and a contemporaneous capacity assessment are the obvious protections, and they cost far less than the seven years of litigation this family has been through.

Sources: The Spokesman-Review, 26 October 2026; The Spokesman-Review, 1 November 2026; RCW chapter 11.84, Inheritance rights of slayers or abusers.