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In Re: Estate of Jimmy Curtis

The superior court did not abuse its discretion in finding that adult ward failed to show by clear and convincing evidence that his conservator denied him a right or privilege as provided in O.C.G.A. § 29-5-22 or in determining that it was in his best interest to deny his motion to modify the conservatorship.

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Jimmy Curtis, an adult ward, appeals from the superior court’s order denying his motion to modify his conservatorship. In that motion, Curtis sought to replace his conservator, Robert Long, with Virginia Hilton or Cuddell Ollis, two of his sisters. We affirm for the reasons set forth below.

Long is Curtis’s brother-in-law, married to a third sister, Jewel Long. The probate court named Long as Curtis’s conservator in an order dated August 28, 2013. Less than two years later, on April 30, 2015, Curtis filed a motion in probate court to modify his conservatorship, requesting that either Hilton or Ollis replace Long as his conservator. Curtis’s motion asserted that Long had breached his duties under OCGA § 29-5-22, by consistently failing to consider Curtis’s expressed desires and personal values, failing to communicate with or be reasonably accessible to him, and failing to uphold his dignity and respect. See OCGA § 29-5-22 b 1, 2. Under Georgia law, where, as here, the petition for modification does not allege a significant change in the capacity of the ward, a court has discretion to modify a conservatorship upon a showing that the modification is in the ward’s best interest. OCGA § 29-5-71 c. After holding a hearing on the motion, the probate court denied the motion in an order dated June 4, 2015, based on a finding that no evidence was offered that proves any misdoing or misusing of any of the ward’s funds by the conservator.

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