2005, Guardianship and Conservatorship of Bette B. Kersta

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Re: 2005, Guardianship and Conservatorship of Bette B. Kerst

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Thank you, for sharing this Delavie.
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Re: 2005, Guardianship and Conservatorship of Bette B. Kerst

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Re: Bette Kerst
Brown testified that, in Washington, Kersta was a member of a group called Ramtha, which made her vulnerable to financial exploitation. He testified that several years earlier, Kersta had lost about $35,000 by investing it in an offshore-trust scheme on the advice of a speaker sanctioned by Ramtha.
U N P U B L I S H E D O P I N I O N
PETERSON, Judge
Appellant Bette B. Kersta appeals from an order appointing respondent Richard E. Brown as her guardian and conservator. Kersta argues that the district court erred in concluding that (1) she lacks sufficient capacity to manage her personal affairs to justify the appointment of a guardian with all powers under Minn. Stat. § 524.5-313(c)(1)-(6) (2004); and (2) she lacks sufficient capacity to manage her financial affairs to justify the appointment of a conservator to handle her estate. We affirm.

FACTS
Around March 2003, Brown became concerned about his aunt, Kersta, who was then 80 years old and living on her own in Mineral, Washington. Brown had maintained regular phone contact with Kersta, calling her once a month or every other month to check on her well-being. Beginning in March 2003 and continuing thereafter, Kersta did not sound like her normal self to Brown.
Near the end of June 2003, Kersta told Brown that a neighbor would be taking her to the hospital for some tests the following day. Kersta was unable to explain what the tests were or why they were being done. Brown called the neighbor, who explained that, following a car accident several months earlier, Kersta had become weaker and her blood and iron count had decreased, so a colonoscopy was being performed to check for internal bleeding.
Because Kersta was in such a dehydrated, malnourished, and weakened condition, the colonoscopy could not be performed, and she was instead admitted to the hospital, where she remained for at least five days. Brown's parents traveled to Washington, and Kersta was discharged from the hospital to their care. Brown's father is Kersta's brother.
While in Washington, Brown's parents went to Kersta's home intending to stay there, but they declined to do so because of its filthy condition. Brown's father testified:
We literally couldn't walk through the house. . . . And I have a station wagon so we pulled the back seat out and we started loading things into the back end of it. We looked in the refrigerator and basically all the food was moldy in the refrigerator and had been there for a long time. In the sink there were utensils that hadn't been washed that had mold growing on them. There was a blender that was literally all moldy. It really wasn't we couldn't I mean we just put it in a bag and took it. We didn't even want to touch it.

Q. What kinds of things did you have to move out of her house in order to get access to her house?

A. Magazines, papers, cassette tapes, mattresses. She uses foam mattresses and so particularly upstairs she had a lot of foam mattresses. And she was sleeping downstairs at the time on a foam mattress. And when we lifted the foam mattresses up, why, there were mice living in between them.

Q. How long was that after she had lived there? Is this a matter of days or weeks or months?

A. You mean since she was in the hospital?

Q. Yeah.

A. . . . [S]he had only been in the hospital for a few days.

Brown's parents brought Kersta to their home in Minnesota. After a few weeks there, Kersta wanted to return to Washington and resisted moving into an assisted-living situation. One day, she put her clothes into a paper bag and began walking down the road, saying that she was going to take a bus back to Washington. There is no bus service within a mile of Brown's parents' house. Brown's father called the police. The police returned Kersta to Brown's parents' house, where police and EMTs questioned her about going back to Washington. Kersta initially said it would take about three hours to travel by bus from Minnesota to Washington and then stated she "could probably make it in about six hours because the bus drivers can go pretty fast." Police and medical personnel determined that Kersta needed a medical evaluation and transported her to the hospital.
Brown opined that Kersta was incapable of lining up appropriate living arrangements for herself. Brown explained that Kersta becomes sidetracked and "doesn't seem to have the ability of being able . . . to put together a lot of sequential things and then following through on them." Brown also testified, "[Kersta's] main goal is to go back to Washington and live in her house. And she doesn't see any other options and doesn't recognize any dangers or any adverse things that could happen to her. She doesn't recognize her own limitations is [sic] the problem."
Brown testified that, in Washington, Kersta was a member of a group called Ramtha, which made her vulnerable to financial exploitation. He testified that several years earlier, Kersta had lost about $35,000 by investing it in an offshore-trust scheme on the advice of a speaker sanctioned by Ramtha.
Brown also testified that, due to memory loss, Kersta was unable to pay her bills, write a check, or maintain her checkbook register without assistance. Brown explained:
[W]hen she first came [to Minnesota] and I was trying not to do the bills on my own, I was going to have her do them, there were two bills. I think there were a total of two or three at the time that I wanted her to write checks for. So she had the checkbook. We sat down and I had the bills there. And I said, "Well, let's pay this one", the electric bill. And so we noted that it was paid on the bill itself. And within, like, a minute when I said, "Okay. We need to write this check", she saw that it said paid on it and said, "Oh, I think I have already done this one." She also had some confusion at the time going back and forth between writing the check and going back and finding the spot in the register to note it. The process of writing two checks took about 20 minutes so.

Kersta testified that in the middle of May, she became very ill with food poisoning after eating gourmet soup from a can she had just opened and that she was sick in bed for approximately three weeks. Kersta believed food in her refrigerator might have spoiled during that time period. She expressed a preference to return to her home in Washington, and believed she was capable of living in her home with some help from neighbors.
The district court found that clear and convincing evidence established that Kersta is an incapacitated person and is "unable to manage property and business affairs because of an impairment to receive and evaluate information or make decisions, even with appropriate technological assistance." The district court found that a preponderance of the evidence established that Kersta has property that would be wasted or dissipated without proper management. The district court found that Kersta's identified needs could not be met by less restrictive means, including appropriate technological support. The district court appointed Brown guardian and conservator of Kersta
http://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/c ... -0405.html
But he has nothing on at all, cried at last the whole people....
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