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.