The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Carthage, Jasper County

Discussion

August 27, 2008

Money questions remain for former county ward

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Questions concerning money that the Jasper County public administrator spent out of the estate of Emma France can’t be decided by Probate Judge David Mouton, he said Wednesday, because he already has issued a ruling that reversed orders making France a ward of the county.

France, 95, of Carthage, and her attorney, R. Lynn Myers, appeared in probate court to argue that Rita Hunter, the public administrator, had no right to spend any money from France’s estate because actions that made her a county ward were unlawful.

In a brief hearing, Mouton noted that he had set aside orders making France a ward of Hunter’s office because, among other issues, France’s daughter or other relatives were not named in the court petition or notified before the hearing in May 2007.

Mouton said that since he ruled June 2, 2008, in France’s favor setting aside the guardianship, there is no longer an estate on which he can hear arguments. The estate is created as a condition of the guardianship

“Letters (of guardianship) should not have been issued, based on facts that were not provided at the prior hearing,” Mouton said.

In a written order after the trial, Mouton dismissed the action, observing that the court can appoint a guardian only “in accordance with the procedures set forth in the statutes, and if there has not been compliance with the statutes, the entire proceeding is void.”

France was accompanied to the hearing by Dolores Forste, her daughter, who was arrested and jailed on a kidnapping charge after she took her mother home with her to California last year.

After the hearing, Myers said he agreed with Mouton’s decision. He said he now will approach the bonding company that underwrites Hunter as public administrator and will seek the return of money spent from France’s account when she was under the county’s jurisdiction.

Matthew Miller, the Springfield attorney representing Hunter at the session, said he believed the court could hear arguments concerning the estate because Mouton, in setting aside France’s guardianship, ordered the public administrator to file with the court a settlement to surrender France’s funds.

“Someone needs to hear the circumstances of the payments,” Miller said.

Miller said France received the benefit of some of the money that was spent, such as rent paid on her apartment in which her belongings were stored after France left Carthage to live in California.

The proposed settlement filed by Hunter’s office shows that France’s income while she was a county ward totaled $4,563.88, primarily from Social Security. Expenditures were listed at $4,239.19, including eight months’ rent on France’s apartment, plus cable television, water and electric bills.

Charges also include a $720 payment to John Podleski, attorney for the public administrator, and $50 to Charlene Kelley, a worker in the public administrator’s office, for preparing France’s taxes for two years. Podleski was not at Wednesday’s hearing but submitted an affidavit pointing out that the payment was authorized by the court.

In the proposed settlement, Hunter waived collection of administrative fees for her services to the estate, which had been approved by the probate court at $3,457.50.

A cash balance of more than $3,000 is left in France’s account, according to Hunter’s accounting.

After France was made a ward of the public administrator’s office, then hospitalized the next day, Forste came to Carthage to visit her mother. Forste and her husband took France to visit relatives, then took her home with them to California after France did not want to return to Jasper County.

Kidnapping charges were filed, and Forste, then 67, was arrested in November and held in a California jail for nearly two weeks before being returned to Jasper County, where she posted bond and was released.

Kidnapping charges against Forste and her husband were deferred and later dismissed.

France and Forste have filed lawsuits against Hunter and others seeking damages, contending that France was unlawfully made a county ward because, among other things, no relatives were notified of the hearing at which she was made a county ward. Also named as a defendant is Steven Bazzano, who signed the medical certificate submitted to the court when France was made a county ward. The suit contends it contained “a false diagnosis.” Bazzano, in an earlier deposition, acknowledged that he did not fill out the certificate and did not know who completed it.

Hunter has said local agencies, including the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, were involved in the hearing and efforts that led to her appointment as guardian for France. She said she was contacted after France lost a large amount of money to lottery scams.

Myers also has filed lawsuits against the two lawyers who served as special prosecutors in the kidnapping charges against Forste and her husband, Steve. That case has been remanded to federal court.





Class-action lawsuit



In late July, R. Lynn Myers filed a class-action lawsuit asking that the public administrator be removed as conservator of her 450 to 500 clients or be ordered to refund any fees she has charged those clients that are deemed excessive.

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