According to friends, Margot Claus, a German citizen, is a fiercely independent New Yorker who wanted to spend her last years in her native land.
The 79-year-old, despondent and now hospitalized for dehydration, had been living in an assisted-living facility in Woodbridge, her estate in the hands of a distant relative and her life overseen by Connecticut's probate court.
Alarmed German authorities are asking for an investigation into how Claus was taken from New York and moved to Connecticut. A probate court judge in February named a North Haven woman, Linda Eger, conservator of Claus' sizable estate.
The odyssey of Margot Claus appears to be yet another misadventure within Connecticut's byzantine and sprawling probate system, where life-altering decisions are made in obscure mom-and-pop courts with little outside scrutiny.
"Friends and family are very alarmed and have contacted German authorities in both Germany and the United States," wrote Katja Hoffman, vice consul in Boston, in a recent letter to Probate Judge Michael Brandt. "The conservator, Linda Eger, has changed Ms. Claus' residence repeatedly without court approval and has removed Ms. Claus' personal property without court approval."
Full Article and Source: Probate Abuses Yet Again
Comments on Article: Topix - Hartford Courant
Rick Green's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at rgreen@courant.com
The 79-year-old, despondent and now hospitalized for dehydration, had been living in an assisted-living facility in Woodbridge, her estate in the hands of a distant relative and her life overseen by Connecticut's probate court.
Alarmed German authorities are asking for an investigation into how Claus was taken from New York and moved to Connecticut. A probate court judge in February named a North Haven woman, Linda Eger, conservator of Claus' sizable estate.
The odyssey of Margot Claus appears to be yet another misadventure within Connecticut's byzantine and sprawling probate system, where life-altering decisions are made in obscure mom-and-pop courts with little outside scrutiny.
"Friends and family are very alarmed and have contacted German authorities in both Germany and the United States," wrote Katja Hoffman, vice consul in Boston, in a recent letter to Probate Judge Michael Brandt. "The conservator, Linda Eger, has changed Ms. Claus' residence repeatedly without court approval and has removed Ms. Claus' personal property without court approval."
Full Article and Source: Probate Abuses Yet Again
Comments on Article: Topix - Hartford Courant
Rick Green's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at rgreen@courant.com
2 comments:
Thank you Rick Green for your ongoing efforts to expose the illegal activities and the corruption in the guardianship system. Guardianship abuse is a national tragedy, that calls for an immediate federal investigation.
An audit of the guardianship and estate case files will show that no one is monitoring the guardians, no one is protecting the ward against over-medication, isolation and inhumane treatment. No one is protecting the ward's assets for the wards. The guardians are out of control and in the end, they answer to no one.
Great article! If only there were Rick Green clones at every major newspaper across the country!
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