North Shore man faces loss of home if sister in U.S. wins
Joey Thompson, The Province
The meter is ticking for a B.C. businessman struggling to nix a U.S. legal order obtained by his sister in his absence that could cost him his North Shore home.
As the story goes, Mark Garner, owner and president of a Vancouver-based computer drafting-design company, tended to his ailing father for a while before Lloyd David Garner died in a Lower Mainland home in 2001, bequeathing his possessions to Mark and his sister, who lived in the U.S.
Mark, named co-executor with Mary-Lynn, never bothered to probate the will in B.C. because, as social security documents showed, his dad had lived on welfare for the 26 years before his death. His average monthly income over that time was about $600. In other words, he had nothing to hide and even less to divide.
But that didn't add up, according to his sister in California.
Figuring her brother had transferred an Oregon condo and bank accounts belonging to her dad into his name, she certified a list of alleged estate assets which an Oregon probate court figured was sufficient to qualify her to act as a personal representative of his estate.
Following her appointment as agent, she launched a civil court action, claiming her brother and his partner committed elder abuse in that they misappropriated $250,000 worth of their dad's assets.
A U.S. jury agreed with her, finding that Garner wrongfully held property and funds that had been included in their dad's will, despite the fact Garner, who represented himself, says he submitted financial records to prove the aging dad was broke and had no property to probate.
Garner insists to this day that the inventory of assets was trumped up by lawyers south of the border who he claims lied and falsified affidavits to prove their point.
He told the U.S. courts they had a duty to nuke the jury's verdict because it flowed from the alleged fraud in probate court.
But the American courts refused to listen.
His appearance before a B.C. Supreme Court judge last year was no more fruitful: Justice Mary Humphries ruled that if Garner believed forged documents were used to make a case in probate court, he should have said so then.
Besides, if he wanted to persist with his claim of alleged fraud, the place to do it was in Oregon.
Humphries' decision was the ticket his sister needed to pursue a B.C. court order forcing the computer software and hardware architect to pay or forfeit his North Van home.
Two months ago, a master of the B.C. Supreme Court approved the sale of Garner's two-storey home on Westview Drive, currently worth about $743,000.
Garner says U.S. attorneys had convinced him not to fight the ruling by probate court, claiming such a move was against the law.
Now he's scrambling to pull together written arguments by mid-month to appeal the forced sale of their home.
"Our case is a textbook case of legal extortion," Garner claimed yesterday.
"Most lawyers want about $15,000 to [prepare the appeal documents], which we don't have. Plus they estimate [it will cost] between $30,000 and $50,000 to attend."
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I am not implying anything relating to the above case. Just that it reminded me of other cases that I have come across where assets of the elderly person were transferred to the children's name so the elderly could claim welfare. The problem is not only about this practice, oftentimes, the elderly are abused by their own children. And, the elderly have no say in their own assets that they had transferred.
A tragic situation that only benefit the lawyers who may charge up to 40% of the total assets to help the elderly to retrieve his/her own assets.
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