Foster v. Professional Guardian Services Corp.

258 P.3d 102, 2011 Alas. LEXIS 82, 2011 WL 3652417
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 19, 2011
DocketS-13569
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 258 P.3d 102 (Foster v. Professional Guardian Services Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foster v. Professional Guardian Services Corp., 258 P.3d 102, 2011 Alas. LEXIS 82, 2011 WL 3652417 (Ala. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

CARPENETI, Chief Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

In 2002, the superior court appointed a professional conservator for a mother suffering from dementia. Her daughter, who also served as special advocate, resisted the appointment. From 2002 onward, the daughter engaged in wide-ranging legal challenges to the conservator's handling of her mother's conservatorship. In response, the conservator incurred large legal fees, paid by the estate, in defending its actions. After the mother's death, the superior court approved the conservator's final accounting. The court recognized flaws in the conservator's management of the mother's property, including a breach of fiduciary duty. But based on a prevailing party analysis the court approved reimbursement, from the mother's property, for the full attorney's fees the conservator expended in defending itself. Because we conclude that certain of the superior court's factual findings may be inconsistent, we remand for the superior court to clarify its findings or make them consistent. And because it was error to evaluate attorney's fees under the prevailing party standard, we remand for reconsideration of attorney's fees. In all other respects we affirm the decision of the superior court.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

A. Facts

Ann Davis was 89 years old in August 2002 when the superior court appointed Professional Guardian Services Corporation (PGSC) as her temporary conservator and guardian. The superior court appointed PGSC permanent guardian and conservator in February 20083.

Davis's daughter Evelynn Foster and son William Bryant were both appointed by the court as special advocates for Davis. They are estranged from each other and disagreed over Davis's care and the management of her property. In particular, Foster contested the appointment of PGSC, while Bryant supported it. This appeal stems from Foster's broad litigation against PGSC.

At some point before PGSC became involved, Foster was Davis's guardian. At that time, Foster had the opportunity to go through Davis's home and take items of personal property that she wished to keep. She inventoried the possessions she took. Once PGSC became guardian, Foster again went through the home and was allowed to take additional items as she wished.

Within 90 days of its appointment, PGSC was required to complete a report outlining its plan of care and inventorying Davis's property. In the report it completed, PGSC noted that it moved Davis to an assisted living facility where she was settling in well. The report contained the required inventory section, where PGSC noted two vehicles, but did not further inventory Davis's personal property. PGSC reported Davis's monthly income to be about $2,000, based largely on a pension and government benefits. Davis's assets totaled approximately $168,000, and consisted of the vehicles, liquid assets of about $65,700, a home appraised at $95,000, and a few minor assets (furniture and money on deposit) at the assisted living facility. Davis's monthly expenses at the assisted living center were roughly $6,700, much higher than her $2,000 monthly income. In February 2008 PGSC estimated that Davis's liquid *105 assets would be depleted in approximately a year. The sale of Davis's house would fund her care for roughly two and a half years.

In part due to legal fees, Davis's liquid assets were rapidly depleted, and by May 2008 PGSC had determined it needed to sell Davis's house. That month, PGSC President David Schade wrote to several attorneys on the case, including Foster's attorney Allison Mendel, informing them of the need to sell the house. The letter stated that Davis's granddaughter Sandra Foster (Sandra)who otherwise would inherit the house-had asked for a first right to purchase the home, and that she could do so at fair market value if she confirmed her intent by June 7 and closed by July 15. A June 2003 letter from Schade to Mendel provided further details of the offer. Ultimately, Sandra did not purchase the house, and PGSC sold it instead to a third party. PGSC placed some of Davis's remaining household items in storage.

Approximately 13 months before Davis's death, the federal government erroneously concluded that she had passed away and stopped paying her pension. PGSC did not timely rectify the error. The missed payments were not paid until after Davis's death, at which time the funds were split evenly between Bryant and Foster, the beneficiaries listed on Davis's pension form.

Davis passed away in November 2004. PGSC's final accounting for its conservator-ship expenses is the subject of the present appeal.

B. Proceedings

1. Judge Reese's rulings concerning PGSC's conservatorship

After Superior Court Judge John Reese appointed PGSC as guardian over Foster's objections, Foster filed a petition to remove PGSC for cause. The court held a hearing in February 2004 and denied Foster's request, finding PGSC to have "acted appropriately, reasonably, and in the best interests of Ann Davis in all aspects of its service as guardian and personal representative." Judge Reese's order from the bench was severely critical of Foster, accusing her of "selfish manipulations" and "hypocrisy," and referring to her "mixed motives and contentious personality." Judge Reese ruled against Foster on every issue, stating: "Ms. Foster's personality is the reason PGSC was appointed in the first place. PGSC's job is not to confront Ms. Foster but to help Ann Davis." Discussing a problem with the insurance on Davis's house, the court held Foster partly responsible, stating that she "interfered in PGSC's work." The court also suggested that Foster's interference was "a transparent attempt to get the house to her daughter through inheritance rather than purchase or rent and was contrary to the current need of Ann Davis to benefit from her own asset."

Because Davis passed away in November 2004, a few months after Judge Reese's written order, Foster's appeal from that order to this court was dismissed as moot. But we granted Foster the right to preserve the issues she raised for the anticipated conser-vatorship proceedings regarding PGSC's accounting.

2. Judge Suddock's hearing and initial ruling from the bench

PGSC petitioned for approval of its final accounting, and the case came before Superi- or Court Judge John Suddock, who conducted a two-day evidentiary hearing in February 2008.

At the close of the hearing, Judge Suddock ruled from the bench, extensively addressing each of Foster's points. Regarding PGSC's inventory, which listed only two cars and not Davis's smaller items, the court stated that it would have been prudent for PGSC to create a better inventory, and that such an inventory was "normally and appropriately done by conservators." But there was no harm, because the court found that Foster had taken the items important to her while going through the house. The court also indicated that PGSC had a good reason not to inventory: PGSC's reasonable belief that Foster "had gotten what she thought was important to keep."

Regarding PGSC's use of paid storage for Davis's household items, the court held storage to be a reasonable expense during Davis's life, particularly in light of the contentious situation in the family.

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258 P.3d 102, 2011 Alas. LEXIS 82, 2011 WL 3652417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-professional-guardian-services-corp-alaska-2011.