In an unusual, and perhaps unique, development, an aggrieved party to a case has filed a lawsuit against the judge who presided over the case. The case involves the estate of a deceased individual who seemingly had no heirs and no will, where the Judge (with assistance from an attorney representing a friend of the deceased) awarded fees to both the attorney and the personal representative in the amount of $450,000 each.
These awards came after several questionable actions. The attorney and the judge insisted the petition to administer the estate be filed in the county other than the county where the deceased lived and that estate assets be moved to that same county to create jurisdiction--jurisdiction in the county for the judge being charged. The Judge also instructed the representative to write a check payable to the Judge in the amount of $1,800,000 which the representative did based on advice of her then attorney. The attorney also "suggested to the representative that it would e a good idea to pay him cash in the amount of $7,000 to pay for half of a gift to the Judge."
The Judge was found guilty in the criminal case but has appealed and is free on bond.
In a separate but related case, the Probate Judge ordered both the representative and the attorney to repay the fees received from the estate after six first cousins and legal heirs to the estate were identified.
A case recently filed by the representative against the former judge alleges legal malpractice, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty, outrage, negligence, wantonness, fraud and suppression. The representative says she had to
· mortgage her home
· borrow money from family and
· "deplete her assets" to pay monies back to the estate, with interest, and to pay IRS penalities and interest for late filing of the estate tax return
· pay monies unnecessarily to the defendants including an the attorney, an accountant and the Judge
Further, the representative said "she has been investigated by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Attorney General's Office, subjected to public ridicule and scorn, suffered personal embarrassment and experienced severe emotional distress as a result of the conduct, misconduct and malpractice of the defendants."
