Judge issues injunction in fiduciary misdealing case

A Norfolk Superior Court judge has issued an order (April 20, 2010) restraining a national brokerage firm from allowing a defendant to withdraw certain funds from his account with the firm.    The order issued after the judge found that my client, the executrix of an estate,  is likely to prevail on her claim that the defendant,  who held a joint bank account with the decedent,  retained funds in that account for himself and failed to turn them over to the estate.

We presented facts showing that that the defendant (the son of the decedent) had been writing checks for the decedent's behalf for several years from a joint checking account.   In 2006,  the defendant was added to the decedent's joint money market account.    The defendant provided no documents indicating that he contributed any funds to this account.    

The defendant pointed to a $100,000 deposit he made to the joint money market account as indicating that the funds were truly contributed by he and the decedent jointly.  However, I pointed out that this deposit was made one day after the defendant received the proceeds from the sale of his house on Martha's Vineyard,  and we provided the court with affidavits and documents indicating that the decedent had loaned the defendant more than $100,000 in funds for legal fees and expenses related to the house, thereby leading to the conclusion that the deposit was effectively a repayment to the decedent of those funds.  

The defendant received more than $2 million from the sale of his house.  Most of the sales proceeds were deposited in the account that is the subject of the injunction.    

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