Contested will is one for books
Retired county judge challenges late son’s $500,000-$900,000 bequest to Lancaster Public Library; state
Attorney General’s office wants the filing attorney -- judge’s son-in-law -- off the case
Sunday News
Published: Jan 11, 2009
00:21 EST
Lancaster
By GIL SMART, Associate Editor
Thomas Bucher was found in his Columbia apartment July 20, dead of a gunshot wound. His death, ruled a suicide,
was a family tragedy.
Now, nearly six months later, his father, a retired Lancaster County senior judge, is in the midst of a tug-of-war over
Thomas Bucher's estate, which could total $900,000 and was bequeathed not to Bucher family members— but to the
Lancaster Public Library.
Wilson Bucher — a former district attorney who later served on the Lancaster County bench as judge for more than
30 years — has challenged his son's will in orphan's court, saying that Thomas Bucher was under an "insane
delusion" when he revised his will in 2003 to disinherit members of his family, and give everything to the library.
That "insane delusion," wrote attorney Steven R. Blair, was Thomas Bucher's "belief that his family was stealing from
him."
The belief, according to the "petition for grant of letters of administration in the estate" filed Aug. 19 and subsequent
filings, may have been rooted in Thomas Bucher's "feelings of jealousy" for his brothers-in-law — one of whom was
Steven R. Blair himself. Blair is married to Wilson Bucher's daughter, Christine, and is serving as his attorney in this
action.
The Lancaster Public Library is fighting Judge Bucher's attempt to invalidate the will; legal briefs between the
attorneys have been pointed. Because of Wilson Bucher's history on the Lancaster County bench, county Judge Jay
Hoberg recused himself. A judge from Perry County will be brought in to decide the case.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has gotten involved, filing a motion to have Steven R. Blair
disqualified as Wilson Bucher's attorney because