A South Florida woman is questioning why her late husband's property was sold without her consent, accusing two lawyers in good standing of scheming to profit from land that was hers.
"I think I was unjustly treated," said 74-year-old Gorema Tolliver, who will see her lawsuit against the two attorneys go to jury selection on Friday.
Tolliver says there's no doubt she married Raymond Tolliver in 1957, not with a marriage certificate and two children to show for it. Despite hard times following good years, she says she and her husband never divorced, and neither ever married another.
When Raymond Tolliver died eight years ago, she discovered that he had invested in what is now valuable real estate in Tallahassee.
Tolliver says she didn't want to sell, but other family members did.
"They sold the property without letting me know anything about it or inform me about what they did," she claims. "My husband and I...were still married."
Tolliver says she found out about the sale when a relative told her the land was no longer theirs -- and that paperwork used at the closing exposes a scheme to end her marriage so the property could be sold.
Court documents show that attorney Curtis Hunter sent Tolliver a letter referring to Raymond Tolliver as her husband.
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But later, Hunter filed a document with the court that doesn't list Gorema Tolliver as a beneficiary of the sale.
In e-mail obtained by NBCMiami sent by Hunter to the realtor and another lawyer, he states "I would like to discuss...the possibility of not involving Gorema.
"It is my understanding that her marriage...was estranged for over 30 years. We can argue that we did not involve Gorema because she abandoned the marriage."
" I think I was swindled," she said. "Because they are lawyers and I'm quite sure they know the law and they know what they did was wrong, but they did it anyway."
"They stole from her," argued her attorney, Norman Powell. "That's what they did. Even their own documents demonstrate that the position they have taken in this litigation is completely fabricated and unsupported by any case law in the state of Florida."
Tolliver says she filed her lawsuit to try to get back the thousands she claims are hers. Both of the accused attorneys declined to comment.
