HOUSTON - The adult grandson of a deceased 90-year-old Texas woman was appointed as independent executor of her estate following a lawsuit filed against the recused Harris County Probate Judge who had disqualified his mother from serving in the position, a press release states.
Judge Jason Cox, a Democrat, appointed Dr. Roy Lester Collins independent executor of the estate of Mrs. Hattie Owens after a hearing in which Dr. Collins’ cousin Aisha Ross, aunt Angelia Owens Sapp and uncle Mel Owens challenged his suitability, according to a press release.
“No bond or other security is required and that upon the taking and filing of the oath required by law, Letters of Testamentary shall issue to Dr. Roy Lester Collins, the IV, and that no other action be had in this court other than the return of an inventory appraisement and list of claims as required by law and notice pursuant to Texas state's code chapter 308,” wrote Judge Cox in his order.
Dr. Collins is a Yale graduate and psychiatrist-in-training at Stanford University in California. His aunt Owens Sapp filed a motion for reconsideration of his appointment and/or to vacate the judgment for a new trial. A hearing is set for May 20.
Dr. Collins’ mother, Sheila Owens Collins, who is also a physician, sued Judge Michael Newman last year in U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Houston after he declared her unsuitable to serve as the first-named executor allegedly due to family discord.
In Boyles v Gresham in re the Estate of Grober, it was reportedly determined that family rancor is not enough to disqualify a potential executor, the press release states.
Owens Collins complained in her federal lawsuit that Judge Newman, a Democrat, disqualified her so that $93,000 could be channeled out of the estate to the detriment of the beneficiaries. Judge Cox took over the state probate case after Judge Newman recused himself.
At the Zoom hearing, Owens Collins’ attorney Marie Rodriguez objected to allegations that her client had stolen thousands of dollars from Mrs. Hattie Owens’ bank account to pay for Dr. Collins’ ivy league education instead of maintaining the deceased matriarch’s home.
“If Mr. Reiner continues to pull select issues, a $20,000-check, a $50,000-check and use those as some kind of an insinuation that there was wrongdoing, then we've got to be able to rebut that, Judge...and it's in evidence already and it clearly rebuts that evidence even though there was never a ruling on it,” Rodgriguez told the Court.
Houston Attorney Scott Reiner represents Dr. Collins’ aunt Owens Sapp, who along with her daughter Aisha Ross and brother Mel Owens, had contested the appointment of Owens Collins as executor of Mrs. Hattie Owens’ estate.
According to a transcript of the hearing obtained by the Southeast Texas Record, when questioned about his mother stealing money from Mrs. Hattie Owens to pay for medical school, Dr. Collins said that Owens Collins had paid the majority of his tuition, college, and graduate school.
“But once I got to med school, that's when I took over and started paying my own tuition,” Dr. Collins told the Court.
As previously reported, Mrs. Hattie Owens and her husband Emiel Owens amassed a modest fortune that included two student housing properties in Prairie View, Texas, a 5,000 square foot home in Houston's medical center worth half a million dollars, two Mercedes Benz vehicles, and a Porsche after they had both graduated from Prairieview A&M University.
The patriarch, Mr. Emiel Owens, who is also deceased, served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army with the 777th Field Artillery Battalion in Europe during World War 2.
The widowed Mrs. Hattie Owens became a ward of the state under
guardianship after her granddaughter, Aisha Ross, made an allegedly
false report with Adult Protective Services against her aunt Owens
Collins who was Mrs. Hattie Owens' power of attorney at the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment