Obtaining personal property for a sibling on life support

[Caterpillar320]

My sister is on life support in critical condition. She has 2 son's which have different fathers. Her crazy boyfriend( father of neither) has her things, including her 2 cars, & titles which are in her name. Her oldest son is staying with us. His father does not want him. 1 of the cars he uses to get back, & forth to school. His school is 40min away from us( he is a senior). We are driving him now, but he is tardy everyday, & we pick him up late, due to I have to pick my son up at his school. The other nephew is staying with his daddy. In which he is trying to switch his school, but cannot get his birth certificate, or medical records from the crazy boyfriend. My sister does not have a Will. Also my sister has Medicaid, Food Stamps, & Child Support going to the boyfriends house. How do I handle this. What steps can we take to fix this mess while she is living, & what kind of mess do we have is she does not pull through. Thank you for any, & all info....

 

[LdiJ]

My sister is on life support in critical condition. She has 2 son's which have different fathers. Her crazy boyfriend( father of neither) has her things, including her 2 cars, & titles which are in her name. Her oldest son is staying with us. His father does not want him. 1 of the cars he uses to get back, & forth to school. His school is 40min away from us( he is a senior). We are driving him now, but he is tardy everyday, & we pick him up late, due to I have to pick my son up at his school. The other nephew is staying with his daddy. In which he is trying to switch his school, but cannot get his birth certificate, or medical records from the crazy boyfriend. My sister does not have a Will. Also my sister has Medicaid, Food Stamps, & Child Support going to the boyfriends house. How do I handle this. What steps can we take to fix this mess while she is living, & what kind of mess do we have is she does not pull through. Thank you for any, & all info....

Has anyone tried to talk to the boyfriend and explain that the one child needs the car to get to school and that the other needs his documentation in order to change schools? However, the father can easily obtain a replacement birth certificate and the child's medical records.

The only other option would be to become your sister's legal guardian and then force a legal solution through the courts against the boyfriend.

 

[HRZ]

IF Sis is mentally competent she might rush to get a durable power of attorney in place for you...and that might provide sufficient leverage to be directed to access her residence and get some of her stuff and access her accounts and make changes on her behalf.

Generally speaking a homeless or displaced youth can be enrolled in local public school wo current records et al. Think outside the box.

 

[LdiJ]

IF Sis is mentally competent she might rush to get a durable power of attorney in place for you...and that might provide sufficient leverage to be directed to access her residence and get some of her stuff and access her accounts and make changes on her behalf.

Generally speaking a homeless or displaced youth can be enrolled in local public school wo current records et al. Think outside the box.

I can tell you, that if sis is on life support she won't even be able to sign her name to anything. That was the scariest part for me about being on life support. I could not write at all so I could not communicate with anyone. I could not form letters or words.

 

[justalayman]

Most times, if a person is on life support, they are not going to be considered competent to be able to make legal decisions. The fact they are on life support means their condition is such that the docs are doing everything possible simply to keep them alive. That pretty much means they are in no condition to communicate in a competent manner with others.


The sister could go to court and obtain a temporary conservstorship/guardianship for the ill sister seeking a right to deal with her personal matters, which would include dealing with her personal property. Sister could also seek a temp guardianship of the kids but that would not allow her to do anything with ill sisters estate. It would allow her to act in her sisters stead regarding issues with any child she has been appointed guardian for.


Ldij, while not being able to speak or write would make communication difficult, it alone would not mean one couldn’t express themselves in a manner the courts would accept. The problem is whether or not you had the mental capacity to be able to make decisions. If you were on life support, I suspect you would have been deemed temporarily mentally incompetent to make such decisions. People on life support are typically either medicated or otherwise incapacitated such thst a court would not see them as mentally competent.

 

[not2cleverRed]

I'm going to go with the easy stuff first:

The other nephew is staying with his daddy. In which he is trying to switch his school, but cannot get his birth certificate, or medical records from the crazy boyfriend. My sister does not have a Will. Also my sister has Medicaid, Food Stamps, & Child Support going to the boyfriends house. How do I handle this. What steps can we take to fix this mess while she is living, & what kind of mess do we have is she does not pull through. Thank you for any, & all info....

Your younger nephew's Dad should be able to obtain a certified copy of the birth certificate from the town/city clerk at town/city hall where your younger nephew was born. There will be a (usually small) fee. If Dad is on the birth certificate, this should be especially easy.

Your younger nephew's Dad should be able to get a copy of any relevant medical records from his son's doctor. If he does not know who that is, he can ask the last school his son was registered at what's on file for his son - immunization records/school physical, and there should be a doctor's name on that to boot.

I believe DSS or whoever handles that stuff in your state would be interested in the info that she and the boys are no longer in that household. They might also be able to help the households where the boys are contact a caseworker to see if those households qualify for any resources.

By the way, you should try to petition Family Court for guardianship of the nephew living with you?

If your sister dies without a will, her estate (such as it is) will be divided among her surviving relatives, of which the crazy boyfriend is not. (If he liked it he should have put a ring on it...) It is likely that intestate laws of your state would dictate that it be split evenly among her surviving children. This includes the cars, if titled to her.