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Contempt Charges

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momestate

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

My brother is the Administrator of my Mother's estate. She died 9/1999 and there was no will. We had a pre-trial on Dec. 1st, 2004 and the judge ordered the Administrator to pay the heirs their settlement proceeds within 90 days, by March 1st. On March 3rd, his lawyer mailed out letters, and the heirs received notices of the certified letters on March 5th. The lawyer had sent Treasurers Checks made payable to the Administrator, and endorsed by the Administrator. Our banks will not cash the checks because they are of course not made payable to the heirs. He was also court ordered to include a statement releasing the heirs from any further asset claims and fees. We still have not receive this statement.

We have filled out contempt forms. We know our brother did this on purpose to delay paying the heirs, he has handled the estate for the last 3.5 years in this same deceitful manner, which has cause a small estate to take forever to settle. During the past 3.5 years he has been attempting to obtain all the property of her estate for $10.00, but he lost in court.

We contacted his lawyer and he said that he told his client to get certified checks made payable to each of the heirs, and that his client showed up with the Treasurers checks instead. That he felt there should be no problem with us cashing them, then he hung up on us. He has avoided our questions about the release statement we should have received.

We had a lawyer for the first 2.5 years of this, but we were getting financially drained without any type of outcome except things dragging on and on. We represented ourselves at the pre-trial (by phone conference) and won a settlement. The judge had to stop the court proceedings 5 times because of my brother's outbursts.

I have a few questions:
1) Should we send the checks back to the lawyer or to the court?
2) Will we be required to appear in court for the contempt charges? Two of us live in Colorado and one lives in North Carolina, and the time and expense of this would be such a hardship.
3) Any other advice to help solve this?

We just want all this settled fairly without my brother's games.
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
Don't send the checks back to anyone--hold on to them, since they are your leverage in getting the parties to act more responsibly.

This is a matter involving thousands of dollars that you are eligible to receive--why would you now be reluctant to pay an attorney a nominal fee to get everything straightened out?

How did you find out about the contempt forms? This is not a do-it-yourself project. Be smart and get an attorney's assistance. Your personal appearance will probably not be required in Massachussetts if you are willing to sign an affidavit that explains the circumstances and your complaint.

Is it possible that administrator made the checks payable to himself so he could cash them and then deduct his administrator's fee and then send remainder to the heirs? Even if that was true, that would be a sloppy way to do it and he does need to face the full force of the law for his contempt and the penalties as well. And also file a complaint against the attorney (after you get your checks) with the state bar association--even if he was doing what the administrator suggested, he should have known better not to send the checks out as he did.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 
S

seniorjudge

Guest
Q: Our banks will not cash the checks because they are of course not made payable to the heirs.

A: This does not make sense that a bank will not cash an endorsed check. Ask them again, then deposit the money, and be glad you are shut of bad sib.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Some banks do not like to cash endorsed checks if the person who provided the endorsement is not there at the bank in person, since the bank has no way of knowing whether the signature is genuine or not.
 
S

seniorjudge

Guest
Dandy Don said:
Some banks do not like to cash endorsed checks if the person who provided the endorsement is not there at the bank in person, since the bank has no way of knowing whether the signature is genuine or not.
And that is why they deposit them "for collection." You do not get the funds till the checks clear.
 

terric0037

Junior Member
We have tried three different banks and they all said "no" to cashing the checks. They said we are not "brother's name" and they have no way of knowing that that is his signature.

We were sent the contempt forms from the court and instructed on how to fill them out, it was very easy actually. I was surprised.

The estate is not large, so we aren't getting alot of money, it's actually going to cover past lawyer fees plus a little extra. Our lawyer just kept asking for money and nothind was ever getting resolved or moving forward. He just kept draining us.

We just want it done fairly and finally be over. We feel our brother is doing things this way to drag out us getting paid. He wanted the real estate for free but judge is making him pay for it. He's made our lives miserable ever since.

We still have not received the release statement from the attorney. We included that in our contempt complaint as well as the check issue.

my brother quickly sent out new checks with the heirs names on them when he found out we were filing contempt charges. He just so happened to "accidentally" mispelled our names this time. We don't know whether to try and cash the checks or wait till after the contempt hearing. What is right?

His lawyer has been so awful. If we file a complaint with the state bar association, what will happen then?

thanks for all the great advice so far! I truly appreciate you and this wonderful site!
 

momestate

Junior Member
Dandy Don, that is exactly what happened at the banks with the checks. The treasurer checks do not even have an address or phone number for the bank, they only supply bank name, city and state, and since the checks are issued from an out of state bank, that made it more of a problem.

Our brother just sent us new treasurer's checks made out in the heir's names when he found out we were filing contempt charges... this time he "convenietly" spelled my name wrong. Should we try to cash these checks, or wait till after the contempt hearing the end of May?

we still have not received the release statement that was ordered either.
the judge ordered it to include no further claimes of assets or fees to the heirs.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Go ahead and try to cash the checks. Some banks are understanding about typos and misspelled names and are kind enough to go ahead and cash (as long as you are a customer or have sufficient identification), and others will reject them until the name is spelled correctly.
 

momestate

Junior Member
Thank You for all your help.... it's much appreciated!!! :)

one of my sisters has yet to receive her check... which means the property does not yet belong to him right? and if we cash the new checks, will we be hindering our claims against him at the contempt hearing?
My sister wants to try and get my brother removed as administrator at the contempt trial... do you think this is possible?
 

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