By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
A corporation formed by two Sarcoxie-area brothers will be allowed to charge their mother more than $5,200 per month to care for her in her own home.
The ruling made this week in Joplin by David Mouton, Jasper County probate judge, settles at least a skirmish in a dispute involving brothers Charles, Larry and Dale Chrisman over issues including the care of their mother, Dorothy Chrisman.
In addition to approving the charge assessed by Larry and Dale Chrisman, Mouton also approved payments of nearly $42,000 that had been taken by the brothers’ company without prior authorization by the court. Larry Chrisman must report to the court on expenditures from his mother’s estate because he was named her guardian and conservator June 12, 2008, after she was found by the court to be disabled and incompetent.
“In an ideal world, no one would charge to take care of their mother,” Mouton said. “But in-home care is expensive, and I agree she should be kept in her home.”
Charles Chrisman had challenged the charges and told the court he would care for his mother in his own home, “using only her Social Security.”
“She had $188,000 when they started,” he said in testimony before the court. “It breaks my heart.”
Both Larry and Dale Chrisman testified they formed the corporation to charge for their mother’s care. But Larry Chrisman said the two, along with his wife, provide “nearly 24-7 care,” including meal preparation, cleaning, laundry, transportation and help with bathing.
Larry Chrisman said he is the primary caregiver, though his wife or brother step in when he is at work. He and his wife live a quarter-mile away, he said, and Dale Chrisman now lives with his mother.
“For the last few months, someone has been there pretty much all the time,” he said. “I was staying there some nights; now Dale is staying.”
He said the corporation, which was registered with the state in March 2008, was established to assess the home-care charges.
“If we put her in a rest home, the money would be going there,” he said. “And we did it so Charles wouldn’t sue us over something.”
Larry Chrisman said he filled the weekly tray used to dispense his mother’s medications, but acknowledged under questioning by Jim Spradling, Charles Chrisman’s attorney, that he had no medical training and knew nothing of potential side effects of the medicines.
To questions from his attorney, Christopher Dumm, he said the corporation also had been created to protect his mother’s assets, and that taxes had been paid on the money taken as income.
Dale Chrisman testified he moved in with his mother last October. He said he did not pay room and board, adding, “but I buy food and don’t expect anything back.”
Questioned about checks written on his mother’s account, Dale Chrisman said his mother “pays for all her own groceries and supplies.”
Charles Chrisman said he is not permitted to see his mother or talk to her on the telephone. If allowed to, he said he would care for his mother in his own home.
He acknowledged that his mother was a defendant in a lawsuit that he had filed several years ago, but said the lawsuit was against Dale Chrisman to recover some farm machinery that he owned.
“Dale had taken it and moved it on to her property, and the lawyer added her name,” he said. “But I didn’t sue my mother.”
He also acknowledged he owed his mother $6,000 because she had paid publishing costs of a book he had written.
Spradling said the charges for Dorothy Chrisman’s care amounted to “financial exploitation” and said $1,750 per month would be a more reasonable fee.
“Especially since she’s paying for everything,” he said.
Dumm presented to the court documents showing charges by Joplin firms providing 24-hour care by a live-in attendant could range from $170 to $342 per day.
Mouton acknowledged Charles Chrisman’s offer to care for his mother. But, he noted the two had been on opposite sides of a lawsuit, and that Larry Chrisman had been named guardian and conservator.
“These expenses seem high, but in-home care is expensive,” he said. “I believe it’s in this lady’s best interests to continue to reside in her own home.”
$1,000 limit
Judge Mouton reminded Larry Chrisman that expenditures of more than $1,000 must be approved by the court in advance; but then approved about $48,500 in expenditures from the ward’s account, including the payments to LD Home Care LLC.
