Utah Judge Rules Against Josh Powell Family in Estate Case

A 3rd District Court judge on Wednesday prevented the family of Josh Powell from collecting any more money from his estate, saying they waited too long to challenge changes to his legal trust.

The ruling prevents the Powells from collecting the assets in Josh and Susan Powell’s trust when Susan is declared dead, probably in December. 

 

That trust, and a related conservatorship, will include $2.3 million in life insurance awards, which have been accumulating interest, and the couple’s house in West Valley City.

 

Terrica and Alina Powell — Josh’s mother and sister, respectively — are likely to appeal. Their Salt Lake City attorney, Joshua Lee, declined to comment Wednesday.

 

While Judge L.A. Dever ruled in favor of Chuck and Judy Cox, Susan Powell’s parents, he found problems with how they came to manage their daughter’s estate.

 

Dever said Chuck Cox should not have been put in charge of the estate. The terms of Josh and Susan Powell’s legal trust said a trustee could be appointed only if they were dead or incapacitated.

 

While Josh Powell is dead, Susan Powell has never been found, and Chuck Cox did not provide documentation from two doctors saying his daughter was incapacitated, as required by the terms of the trust. Once he gained stewardship of the trust, Dever said, Chuck Cox did not have authority to remove the Powell family as beneficiaries.

 

Yet, 3rd District Judge Katherine Bernards-Goodman granted Chuck Cox conservatorship over the trust on Jan. 30, 2013. Utah law provided the Powell family 30 days to challenge his appointment.

 

The Powells did not file any such challenge until Sept. 13.

 

Despite errors he said were made by the Coxes, Dever let stand their booting of the Powells.

 

Full Article and Source:
Utah judge rules against Josh Powell’s family in estate case

 

See Also:
Utah Judge Postpones Ruling on Susan Powell Estate Dispute

Man Sentenced for Stealing Great Aunt's Life Savings

A Knoxville man who admitted to stealing his great aunt's life savings will spend three years behind bars.

Mark Kevin Tudor, 42, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in April on federal wire fraud charges. He must also repay the $266,227.80 he stole from the family member he was supposed to be taking care of.

Investigators said Tudor had been granted power-of-attorney by his 93-year-old great aunt, who had a visual disability and needed help with her finances.

Instead of helping her, authorities said he depleted her bank and credit union accounts and her life insurance policy for his own gain. It nearly depleted the woman's life savings.

According to a written statement by the victim read in court, when she discovered the fraud only $347 remained in her credit union account, which had held over $200,000 before the theft.

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Man Sentenced for Stealing Great Aunt's Life Savings

Utah Judge Postpones Ruling on Susan Powell Estate Dispute

The family of Josh Powell on Tuesday again asked a 3rd District Court judge to return them trustees of Josh and Susan Powell’s estate.

Judge L.A. Dever said he will issue a written ruling later, but he denied a motion from the Powell family attorney to require the Coxes to post a surety bond to safeguard against mismanagement. Dever said there was no evidence Chuck Cox, Susan Powell’s father, had thus far mismanaged any holdings.

 

The families of Josh Powell and his missing wife Susan are arguing over who should be the trustees and beneficiaries of two legal entities holding the couple’s assets: a conservatorship and a trust. The conservatorship is holding Susan Powell’s assets while she remains missing. The trust holds the joint assets of Josh and Susan Powell that were to be distributed in the event both of them died.

Together the trust and conservatorship hold about $2.3 million in life insurance proceeds, which are accumulating interest, as well as the Powell home in West Valley City.

Chuck Cox is the conservator for this daughter and used that authority to change the terms of the trust. Terrica and Alina Powell — Josh’s mother and sister, respectively — contend the terms of those agencies were illegally changed to remove them as trustees or beneficiaries.

Their Utah lawyer, Joshua Lee, said being conservator of Susan Powell’s estate does not give Cox all the powers that his daughter had, and only Susan Powell had the authority to amend the trust.

"A conservator can amend the trust only in the case of incapacity," Lee told Dever, citing the terms of the trust.

Lee also accused Cox of having a conflict of interest because he used his authority as conservator to make his wife and himself the lone trustees. Lee said Cox is "lining his own pockets."

But Cox’s attorney, Ted Buck, told Dever that Cox has an obligation to do what is best for his daughter, and much has changed since the trust was written in 2009. ''

Susan Powell, 28, disappeared from her West Valley City home on Dec. 6, 2009.

Her husband, Josh Powell, 35, was investigated by police, but never charged.

Josh Powell killed his two children and himself in 2012 at a home in Graham, Wash.

 

Full Article and Source:
Utah Judge Postpones Ruling on Susan Powell Estate Dispute

Ripped Off Scions Can Go After Lawyer's Bosses

Heirs of the Alta Dena Dairy fortune can pursue claims that their lawyer milked them with his firm's support, a California appeals court ruled.

Berger Kahn began representing the Stueves in 2006 when their lifelong family friend Jay Allen joined the firm.

The Stueves claim that attorney Raymond Novell teamed up with Allen to empty the $50 million estate under the guise of limiting the family's tax liability.

Their 121-page original complaint claimed the Berger Kahn knew everything Allen and Novell were doing with their estate, and kept the family in the dark about misconduct allegations and information about three lawsuits against Allen.

Allen left Berger Kahn for Buchalter Nemer, a co-defendant in the suit, in 2007.

The Stueves allegedly discovered the Novell and Allen scheme in 2009 when one of the patriarchs died and his wife asked about the life insurance proceeds. Novell told her there was no money.

After a court removed Novell as trustee of the Stueve family's trusts in 2010, an examination of the estate revealed that Novell and Allen caused at least $25 million in losses.

In their 2010 complaint, the Stueves and their various trusts and entities claimed that Berger Kahn looked the other way and collected fees while Novell and Allen schemed, "using the family's estate as their own personal piggy bank or petty cash drawer - engaging in self dealing, lending to themselves, their own family members, sham corporations and girlfriends millions of dollars while making egregious fees and taking undisclosed and unauthorized commissions."

 The Stueves accused Novell and Allen in a 331-page second amended complaint of using the family money to operate a Ponzi scheme, based on money laundering and sham loans. Novell and Allen allegedly loaned the family's money to various entities and repaid - if at all - using more of the Stueve money.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock tossed the suit as untimely, however, after agreeing with Berger Kahn that, taken together, the family's entire action relied on the impossible notion that Allen had misled Novell.

A three-judge panel with California's Fourth Appellate District concluded otherwise.

Full Article and Source:
Ripped Off Scions Can Go After Lawyer's Bosses

See Also:
Read the original complaint
Read the California Fourth Appellate District's Opinion

PA: Funeral Director Charged with Forging Life Insurance Policy Documents

A Schuylkill County funeral director was charged following allegations that he forged life insurance documents by appointing his business as the owner and beneficiary of the policy.

Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane identified the defendant as Stephen Oravitz, 58, 135 Brandonville Road, Ringtown. Oravitz is the owner of Oravitz Home for Funerals, 40 North Jardin St., Shenandoah, which is also charged.

According to the criminal complaint, Oravitz submitted change of ownership and change of beneficiary forms to Mutual of Omaha in July of 2011, making the Oravitz Home for Funerals the new owner and beneficiary of a life insurance policy.

The charges state that the individual who owned the life insurance policy filed a complaint with the local police department and reported that she had never authorized any changes to her life insurance policy.

Kane said that the woman who owned the policy had dealt with the Oravitz Home for Funerals regarding her late husband?s arrangements and allegedly provided Oravitz with a copy of the cover page of her own $10,000 life insurance policy for informational purposes while prearranging her own services.

The charges state that the woman also provided Oravitz with the name and telephone number of the beneficiary of the policy to assure that funds existed to provide for her future burial.
Agents from the Attorney General's Office emphasized that this is an ongoing investigation.

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Schuylkill County Funeral Director Charged with Forging Life Insurance Policy Documents