Rader v. Levenson

Even if a trust attached to allegedly misapplied estate funds, venue was not proper in Douglas county, because trusts are subjects of equity jurisdiction, which lies in the county where the defendant resides in this case Carroll county.

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Attorneys Candace Rader, Valerie Cooke, and their law firm, Rader & Cooke, P.C., collectively, “the appellants” moved to dismiss or transfer to Carroll County an action filed against them in Douglas County. In the alternative, the appellants sought to have the complaint against them dismissed, asserting that the petitioner had not stated a claim against them upon which relief could be granted. The trial court denied the motion, and we granted the appellants’ application for interlocutory appeal. For reasons that follow, we reverse. The relevant facts show that following the death of Jerry Eugene Post, his wife Debra Samples Post was named executrix of the estate in January 2002. In September 2002, Post was indicted for the murder of her husband, and she retained the appellants to represent her. To pay for legal representation, Post, in her role as executrix, deeded a house that had belonged to her deceased husband to Rader & Cooke, P.C. The appellants subsequently sold the property for $260,000.

Post pleaded guilty to felony murder in September 2003. In February 2005, the Douglas County probate court removed Post as executrix of the estate and shortly thereafter it deemed her ineligible to inherit from her husband pursuant to OCGA § 53-1-5 et seq.1 Louis Levenson was named Administrator of the estate, and in June 2006, he filed a petition for accounting under OCGA § 53-7-61 against Post. Four days later, Levenson filed a second petition “for Citation of Contempt” and permission to bring suit for the recovery of estate assets. The petition did not specifically name any party as a respondent. However, the petition demanded that Rader, Cooke, and their law firm return the money they received from representing Post in the criminal trial and asked that the two attorneys be held in contempt if they failed to do so. Thereafter, the probate court transferred to Douglas County superior court “the Estate’s Petition for the probate court to order the appellants to repay attorneys fees to the Estate.”

Rader v. Levenson

Even if a trust attached to allegedly misapplied estate funds, venue was not proper in Douglas county, because trusts are subjects of equity jurisdiction, which lies in the county where the defendant resides in this case Carroll county.

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