
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994                    TAG: 9406200046 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940620                                 LENGTH: CHARLOTTESVILLE

WILL OF WEALTHY GENEALOGIST IS OVERTURNED

{LEAD} An Albemarle County Circuit Court jury has overturned a will that left the estate of John E. Manahan to a 35-year-old friend.

After listening to 10 days of testimony, the jury on Friday found that Althea B. Hurt used fraud and coercion to get Manahan to rewrite his will in 1987, leaving the estate - once valued at $1 million - to her.

{REST} The will was contested by three of Manahan's first cousins.

Francis McQ. Lawrence, Hurt's lawyer, asked Judge Henry D. Garnett to overturn the verdict. Garnett will hear arguments on the request in mid-August, although no date was set Friday.

Until Garnett rules on the request, the jury verdict is not considered final.

Manahan was a well-known figure around Charlottesville and was considered an expert on genealogy. He was the husband of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II, the last ruler of the Russian Empire. Anderson died in 1984.

When Manahan died in March 1990 at age 70, he left everything to Hurt, including two houses on University Circle in Charlottesville and a farm in Scottsville. The will left out his 12 first cousins, at least one of whom had been included in a previous will.

Deborah Wyatt, attorney for the Manahan cousins, said Hurt was a manipulator who took advantage of Manahan's generosity and lured him with false promises.

``She took him, she took his property, and she destroyed him,'' she said.

Lawrence said that Hurt took care of Manahan in his declining years. The lawyer offered witnesses who said Manahan had little interest in or regard for his cousins.

Hurt declined to comment. Lawrence said that Hurt should have won.

Wyatt said it's not entirely clear what happens next. The last valid will before the 1987 document named Fred Manahan as beneficiary. Fred Manahan, a cousin of John Manahan, previously has tried to renounce any claim he might have on Manahan's estate, she said.

The size of the remaining estate is uncertain, Wyatt said. The houses on University Circle were sold to Hurt before Manahan's death. Wyatt said she has no current inventory of Manahan's personal effects, including a library that once contained at least 25,000 books.

by CNB