In the Matter of Murray Feingold

Supreme Court of the County of Kings

State of New York

Affidavit

Re: In the Matter of Murray Feingold (109058/01)

To: Hon. Ellen Spodek

I am submitting this affidavit because I believe this case is a matter of public interest. This court has the power to remove an appointed guardian for cause, or to remove the guardianship entirely if upon reassessment of the person’s capacity warrants such removal, I respectfully request the court to consider the following:

Upon information and belief, Murray’s original involvement with this court began in 2001 and stemmed from the threat of being evicted from the rent controlled apartment in which he and his wife were residing.

Circumstances gave the appearance that Murray could not take care of his financial matters. Nowhere in his case file does it explain that for all the years prior to this eviction incident, Murray supported himself and his wife better than most people could. He had purposely withheld rent, because through information gleaned from media sources in reference to “rent strikes” by tenants, he believed this was the only effective means to force the landlord to make what Murray considered to be “necessary repairs”. According to Murray, the amount in back rent claimed by the landlord to be owed was erroneous and an investigation into the matter was never had. A guardian was appointed for both Murray and his wife, Marilyn.

Nevertheless, the person described in those court documents is not the Murray of today.

It is not apparent when first meeting or speaking with Murray that he is a very intelligent person because at times he is hard to understand. He speaks fast and joins his words together. For the first few months he would call me on the phone, it seemed he was yelling at me. It was when I met him in person that I discovered that he has a severe hearing problem and is in dire need of dental work, which I believe effect his speech patterns. People whose hearing is impaired do not hear themselves speaking. In addition, hard of hearing people have a habit of saying “yes” when you ask them a question, rather than admitting that they did not hear or understand what was asked. Murray does this.

What I found most troubling when I met Murray in person was that his most essential needs were not being met. He told me that he had been having dental work done but when the bill became five hundred dollars, the guardian would no longer pay it. He also said that he had ordered a hearing aid from Hearing Aid Xpress which the guardian cancelled. According to Murray, he had a hearing test done recently and he is almost totally deaf in his right ear and partially deaf in his left. It is hard to believe that his guardian would not immediately address the issues which are so negatively effecting the health and well-being of someone under their watch.

Murray wakes every weekday morning at 5:30 am to catch the subway from Brooklyn to his job in Manhattan. On the weekends, he drives. He has been a full time employee of the United States Postal Service, for over 40 years, in an area where they are strict on performance and efficiency. He is a highly valued employee, who continually receives “Certificates of Appreciation” accompanied by gifts of value. He also receives outstanding performance awards and Perfect Attendance awards which are given out when an employee has perfect attendance, meaning no call-ins, sick days or lateness for the whole year. These certificates also come with gifts of value. Murray has been given these awards throughout his career, most recently during the years when he has been under guardianship. Ms. Thomas, his supervisor, has told me that she likes Murray and spoke highly of his work ethic.

Murray takes care of his wife Marilyn, who he has been married to for over 30 years. Murray and Marilyn cook for each other, do their own laundry, wash dishes and do other chores. They exist without any outside help. After working all day, Murray goes out to collect cans and bottles to cash in and give what money he collects to Marilyn, since the guardian only gives her 80 dollars a month out of her income. According to family members, Marilyn has become much more introverted since the guardianships. To try to improve the situation, Murray was resourceful enough to enter into therapy with a marriage counsellor, which he paid for out of his own funds.

Murray owns and drives a car and loves to take vacations. They both enjoy travelling and within recent years they have travelled all over even as far as Nashville Tennessee because of their love of country music.

Murray not only works full time, by he also works overtime on weekends and holidays to help pay for these trips which he refers to as vacations. However, according to Murray, the guardian gives him an allowance of $325 every 2 weeks which he uses to pay some bills, but in addition requires Murray to provide them with fifteen hundred dollars each pay period. Murray is forced to work overtime in order to be able to do this since his base pay is less than the fifteen hundred. Murray’s base salary is approximately $50,000 a year. Although I saw an Order permitting the guardian access to Murray’s base pay, I could find no Order allowing the guardian access to his overtime money.

Copies of payments made by the guardian on behalf of Murray are impossible to decipher. Many of Murray's overdue bills to places like cable and cell phone companies, as well as one credit card bill, were in arrears. Some were accumulating interest almost equalling the minimum amounts being paid by the guardian. Both Murray and Marilyn’s expenses are combined. There was no indication of the amount of fees taken out by the guardianship company as compensation for their services.

For the forty years prior to having a guardian, Murray claims, he had no problems paying all his bills, including car payments.

The guardian recently sent a case worker to the Feingold apartment to take pictures because the apartment is cluttered. However, recently Oprah and Dr. Phil have brought the subject of hoarding to light to demonstrate how thousands of people live with this problem. Most of the videos show people who live under conditions much worse than the Feingolds yet none are under guardianship because of it.

In his book on clutter titled “Buried in Treasure, Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding”, the author, Dr. Randy O, Frost, the leading authority on the subject, helps the reader to understand the dynamics of this problem. Frost says that one of the most promising approaches to intervention appears to be cognitive behavioural therapy, which combines the systematic restructuring of thought processes with practical exercises aimed at reducing clutter. He also claims that cleaning the house and discarding a persons “possessions” makes matters worse and causes the person to acquire more stuff than they had previously.

I learned that both Murray and Marilyn’s role models, their parents, were hoarders. Murray’s father collected and saved magazines and newspapers. So does Murray. He feels that the papers containing important events are history and should be saved. When I explained that he could always go to the Internet and obtain copies of the data, he thought about and on his own, he understood that it was all right to stop saving the papers. He has started cleaning his apartment.

Rather than read the book by Mr. Frost, the guardian took matters into their own hands. Under false pretences, they took Murray and Marilyn “out for pizza” and then created a nightmare that neither Murray nor Marilyn will soon forget. The guardian hired a cleaning service who basically considered all the belonging trash, and treated them accordingly. In addition, while they were having lunch, their two dogs were taken away to the pound. When Murray and Marilyn returned home and found the dogs missing, they were devastated. Traumatized.

Marilyn and Murray drove to the court and then around to all the shelters and pounds to try to recover the pets they loved. Finally, they were given the heartbreaking news. The dogs had been destroyed. Marilyn still cries over it.

Studies are quoted again and again about the benefits of pets, especially dogs and cats, so much so that nursing homes welcome the animals. Senior housing complexes allow residents to own and keep dogs and cats of all shapes and sizes.

I ask that Murray be allowed to live his own life. Because guardianships take away a person’s civil rights, they should only be used as a last resort. I am not an attorney but I can not pin point the clear and convincing evidence as to why Murray is considered incapacitated at this time.

Murray will soon be of retirement age and wants to be free to make his own decisions and to do whatever he wants. He can set up an online account to pay for his rent. He has family who can help him. I will volunteer to help him eliminate his clutter, by following the suggestions in Mr. Frost’s book, so that he can maintain his apartment in safe, pleasant and orderly manner.

Written by a NASGA member

See also:
Elder Abuse or Slavery