At 80, frail Agnes Rick can't walk or feed herself without help. Her memories are often murky or lost.

She knows little or nothing of the battle over who will take care of her, and her estate of nearly $2 million.

The battle began last year in Delaware Chancery Court, pitting neighbors and relatives against each other. Accused of unfairly influencing his elderly client, a Wilmington stockbroker will likely carry the fight to the state Supreme Court.

And further action may follow an ongoing, year-old inquest by the state attorney general's office.

The story that follows draws on a ruling by Vice Chancellor William B. Chandler III, who heard four days of bitter argument in February.

"They went everywhere together," next-door neighbor John Sailer Jr. said.

The couple never argued, Agnes Rick often said after her husband died. And they never had children.

Chris Rick worked for the DuPont Co. as a chemical engineer. Agnes sometimes taught crafts at Wilmington's YWCA, and helped at St. Ann's Church.

They lived simply and frugally. Chris kept up the five-bedroom house and yard himself. Agnes, after she brewed a cup of tea, would save the tea bag to make a second cup.

And so the Ricks saved money, and Chris managed the savings – building up more than $1 million in stocks, bonds, cash and real estate. Around 1980, he retired from DuPont.

"It's not like he made a fortune – but they never spent any money, and they invested well," said Felicia Jones, a friend of the family.

Agnes Rick's memory began to fail around 1988, the year she turned 75. At times she did not recognize friends and relatives. She suffered from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a doctor said in October 1989.

Eight months later, Chris Rick died suddenly. "It was a devastating loss to Mrs. Rick. . . . the person she had depended on for over 50 years," Chandler said.

"I miss Chris so much – I wish I could be with him," Agnes Rick wrote to a relative two weeks after his death.

Chris Rick left no will. But Sailer, a neighbor for 13 years, stepped forward to help.

Sailer had managed a small investment account for Rick, at the Merrill Lynch office in Wilmington. He would take care of Chris' estate, he told Agnes.

He shifted most of the Ricks' assets into the Merril Lynch account. He sold off cars the couple had owned, switching a four-digit Delaware license plate to his wife's car.

Eventually, Sailer took $17,000 in commission for handling the estate. A friend he had hired as lawyer collected another $17,000.

Agnes Rick's memory and judgment continued to decay. Once tidy, she neglected her hair and dress. Food rotted in her refrigerator.

And she came to believe that she would soon marry Sailer. She was nearing 80; he was 30 years younger and already married – as friends and relatives reminded her. Still, she clung happily to the fantasy.

At home on a June evening in 1992, with Sailer's help, Agnes Rick signed a deed giving away 25 acres of land near Bear.

Valued at $180,000, the rural property had been one of Christian Rick's prized investments. The deed did not say who the land was given to, nor was it dated.

Five months later the deed was finally filed in court. The blanks had been filled in. The land was given to Relias Associates – "Sailer" spelled backward – a corporation of Sailer and his family.

Sailer hired lawyers to write more documents, which Agnes Rick would sign in January 1993. She gave him an option to buy the Rick home for $160,000, well below market value.

Under Agnes Rick's signature, Sailer became the executor of her will. He took power of attorney over her legal affairs, and control of her estate trust.

Back problems put Agnes Rick into the hospital last spring. Nurses and doctors found her withdrawn and unresponsive; tests showed brain atrophy.

Agnes Rick was put under extended care at Riverside Hospital in Wilmington, where she remains. She is not expected to come home.

Rick's niece Patricia Cannon of Bethel Township, Pa., in April 1993 asked that Chandler appoint a guardian to take care of Rick and her property. The estate is now worth up to $1.8 million, said Cannon's attorney David Ferry.

Rick didn't need a guardian, responded Sailer and his wife Pam. They were joined by Agnes' in-laws and their children, all beneficiaries of Rick's will.

Besides helping manage the elderly woman's estate, Sailer said, they cared for Agnes Rick day by day – driving her to church, raking her leaves, fixing plumbing, hiring help.

But Rick needed more, said Cannon. "I was concerned there wasn't enough food in the house. . . . that no clocks in the house worked," she said. "I started this only because her needs weren't being met."

The Sailers pointed to Rick's signature of January 1993, giving John Sailer power to act on her behalf. If the court must appoint a guardian, Sailer said, he should be the one.

Cannon argued that ravaged by Alzheimer's disease, Agnes Rick had not been legally competent to sign those papers. Nor did Rick know what she was doing when she signed away the 25 acres near Bear, Cannon said later.

Chandler agreed – though doctors and others gave varying views of Rick's mental health.

But competent or not, Agnes Rick signed those papers under "undue influence" by the broker, Chandler said – saying that Sailer took advantage of the shy, trusting woman.

Sailer said Rick was grateful for the neighborly help he and his wife gave. "We were the family she never had," while Cannon visited only occasionally, he said.

He believes Cannon – who is not a beneficiary of Rick's will – is simply angling for a fat chunk of her aunt's estate.

Among the facts and disputes:

• Sailer earned $17,000 for handling the estate of Chris Rick.

  Agnes Rick knew all along he would be paid, Sailer said; he gave her the final figure after working out the details.

  No way, Cannon said – the thrifty widow would have been horrified at the cost.

  Sailer had "offered to help," Chandler said; "there is scant, if any, evidence. . . . that Mrs. Rick was aware" the broker was asking for payment.

• Agnes Rick gave away 25 acres of rural land to the Sailers.

  A gift of thanks for their help and friendship, Sailer called it. "She wanted us to have the property in the same way she and Chris had, to have a little piece of woods to visit," he said.

  Chandler blasted that "self-serving suggestion. . . . an insult to Mrs. Rick." The frugal woman was "warm and generous, but she was not a spendthrift," he said.

  Sailer put the blank deed in front of Rick, even as he knew of her delusion that they would marry, Chandler said. Sailer said he learned of Rick's fantasy only later.

• Rick's will would let Sailer buy her house for $160,000.

  A 1990 appraisal valued the house at $215,000, before Agnes Rick paid $40,000 for improvements. An expert brought in by Sailer said the house, in Wilmington's desirable Highlands, was worth $170,000.

"The case is far from over," Ferry said.

Rick's estate trust is to be shifted from Merrill Lynch to Wilmington Trust Co.; the state Public Guardian will be her caretaker, under Chandler's order.

But smarting under what he calls Chandler's "very venomous decision," Sailer may appeal to the state Supreme Court. He said the judge didn't give enough weight to Rick's doctor and other who said Rick had been mentally competent to sign the papers.

Meanwhile, Sailer is under investigation by the state attorney general's office. An investigator would not provide details.

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers would not say whether they were investigating the case.

The Merrill Lynch office stands behind Sailer, said William J. Leckey, senior resident vice president. After an internal review, "we see no violation of firm policy or government regulatory body policy," Leckey said. "We feel that [Sailer] acted in the best interest of the client."

Still untested in court: Rick's will of January 1993.

Rick signed the will at a time when Chandler has ruled she was incompetent. After she dies, the will may be challenged.

If a challenge succeeds, the estate would be parceled out among the closest kin: half to two surviving nephews, and half to Agnes' older sister Marguerite Minker. Now in her 80s, Minker is Patricia Cannon's mother.

The 1993 will left nothing to Minker or Cannon. Thinking about her will, Agnes Rick wrote in 1990: "My sister Marguerite doesn't need anything. . . . and hers will go to her daughter.

But Rick revealed some of her feelings in a letter to her in-laws, written shortly after her husband's death:

We went to lunch at our church club. For $1.50, you could get juice, meat, salad, vegetable, tea or coffee and dessert.

It was nice to be with people again – however I miss Chris so much. . . .

They want me to draw up a Will and I wish I could say, Being in sound mind I spent my money! . . .

I hate this because it is so final.