Probate of Marcus

Citation509 A.2d 1,199 Conn. 524
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
Decision Date29 April 1986
Parties, Medicare & Medicaid Guide P 36,321 Appeal from PROBATE OF Phyllis MARCUS et al., Conservatrices (ESTATE OF Ida BETZES). Phyllis MARCUS et al., Conservatrices (ESTATE OF Ida BETZES) v. DEPARTMENT OF INCOME MAINTENANCE.

Kathleen M. Van Der Aue, with whom, on brief, were Edward L. Marcus and James M. O'Connor, New Haven, for appellants (conservatrices) and appellants (plaintiffs).

Judith Merrill Earl, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on brief, was Joseph I. Lieberman, Atty. Gen., for appellee (department of human resources).

Robert A. Nagy, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on brief, was Judith Merrill Earl, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee (defendant).

Before PETERS, C.J., and SHEA, DANNEHY, SANTANIELLO and CALLAHAN, JJ.

DANNEHY, Associate Justice.

These two appeals arise from the same set of circumstances. The plaintiffs, Phyllis Marcus and Selma Anderson, are the conservatrices for their mother, Ida Betzes, an incapable person. In the first case they appealed to the Superior Court from a disallowance by the Probate Court for the district of New Haven of an item in their account in which they asked to be allowed a credit for unauthorized gifts of certain property which belonged to their ward and which they gave to themselves and various members of the ward's family. The matter was referred to the Hon. Raymond J. Devlin, state trial referee, who, exercising the powers of the Superior Court, affirmed the order and decree of the Probate Court and dismissed the appeal. In the second case, the plaintiffs appeal from the judgment of the Superior Court, Edelberg, J., sustaining the denial by the department of income maintenance of an application for medicaid benefits by the conservatrices on behalf of their ward. We find no error on either appeal.

The facts and procedural history of these cases follow. Phyllis Marcus and Selma Anderson were appointed co-conservatrices for their mother, Ida Betzes, by the Probate Court for the district of New Haven in November, 1976. When they were appointed her conservatrices, Betzes had assets of $596,351.09 and ample income for her comfortable support. Between December, 1976, and December, 1979, the conservatrices made a series of gifts of the ward's property in the amount of $384,060.66. They gave $291,066.66 to themselves, and made gifts in the amount of $12,000 to each of their five children and to Edward L. Marcus and Donald B. Alderman, their spouses. They also gave $9000 to David Shifrin, the son-in-law of Phyllis Marcus. The cumulative effect of these gifts, together with management expenses, was the total depletion of their ward's estate. Betzes, who is over ninety years old, resides at a home for the aged. She is incapacitated due to advanced age and financially unable to pay for her care and maintenance.

On February 6, 1980, Phyllis Marcus, as conservatrix, applied to the department of income maintenance for medicaid benefits on behalf of her ward. After learning of the gifts that had depleted the estate, the department of human resources, as an "interested party" under General Statutes § 45-75, petitioned the Probate Court for an accounting of the estate's management. 1 The Probate Court conducted a hearing, and on June 16, 1980, disallowed the gifts, holding that such gifts were unauthorized under Connecticut law. Thereafter, the department of income maintenance, relying on the decision of the Probate Court, denied the pending application for medicaid benefits on June 30, 1980. On July 7, 1980, the conservatrices filed an appeal from probate with the Superior Court challenging the disallowance of the gifts. On July 15, 1980, the conservatrices requested an administrative hearing with the department of income maintenance concerning the denial of their application for medicaid benefits. After a hearing the department, on September 30, 1980, upheld the earlier denial of benefits. The hearing officer held that Betzes was ineligible for public assistance under department income guidelines, reasoning that the disallowance by the Probate Court of the conservatrices' gifts rendered those funds available for the maintenance and support of the ward. The decisions of the department of income maintenance and of the Probate Court were eventually sustained on separate appeals to the Superior Court. The conservatrices have appealed to this court from the judgments of the Superior Court.

We first address the conservatrices' claim that the Probate Court erred in its determination that the gifts from the assets of their ward's estate were unauthorized under Connecticut law. The Probate Court held that it had no power to authorize the gifts, and on appeal, the Superior Court agreed. At the time these gifts were made, our statutes did not authorize a conservator to make gifts from property of the ward's estate. "A conservator has only such powers as are expressly or impliedly given to him by statute. See Stempel v. Middletown Trust Co., 127 Conn. 206, 221, 222, 15 A.2d 305 [1940]. In exercising those powers, he is under the supervision and control of the Probate Court." Elmendorf v. Poprocki, 155 Conn. 115, 118, 230 A.2d 1 (1967). A " 'conservator of the estate,' " under our law, is a person "appointed by the court of probate under the provisions of [General Statutes 779] to supervise the financial affairs of a person found to be incapable of managing his or her own affairs...." General Statutes § 45-70a(a). The statutory duties of a conservator are to "manage all the property [of the estate] and apply so much of the net income of the property, and, if necessary, any part of the principal of the property, which is required to support the ward and those members of the ward's family whom he has the legal duty to support and to pay his debts, and may sue for and collect all debts due him." General Statutes § 45-75(a).

"The probate court is a court of limited jurisdiction and has only such powers as are given it by statute or are reasonably to be implied in order to carry out its statutory powers." Prince v. Sheffield, 158 Conn. 286, 293-94, 259 A.2d 621 (1969); Palmer v. Reeves, 120 Conn. 405, 408, 182 A. 138 (1935). "It is familiar principle that a court which exercises a limited and statutory jurisdiction is without jurisdiction to act unless it does so under the precise circumstances and in the manner particularly prescribed by the enabling legislation." Heiser v. Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., 150 Conn. 563, 565, 192 A.2d 44 (1963); Union & New Haven Trust Co. v. Sherwood, 110 Conn. 150, 161, 147 A. 562 (1929); see Potter v. Alcorn, 140 Conn. 96, 100, 99 A.2d 97 (1953). The Probate Court is under an "affirmative duty" to protect the assets of an incompetent's estate. Marshall v. Kleinman, 186 Conn. 67, 69, 438 A.2d 1199 (1982). The court, and not the conservator, is "primarily entrusted with the care and management of the ward's estate, and, in many respects, the conservator is but the agent of the court. Shippee v. [Commercial] Trust Co., 115 Conn. 326, 330, 161 A. 775 [1932]; Johnson's Appeal, 71 Conn. 590, 597, 42 A. 662 [1899]." Elmendorf v. Poprocki, supra.

Under our law, it is clear that the conservator acts under the supervision and control of the Probate Court in the care and management of the ward's estate. It is equally clear that the Probate Court is without jurisdiction to approve of any acts by the conservator unless those acts are authorized by statute. "A Probate Court judge is not a chancellor. His only equity powers are those which are incidental to, and connected with, the settlement of a particular estate." Palmer v. Hartford National Bank & Trust Co., 160 Conn. 415, 429, 279 A.2d 726 (1971). The facts of this case present no compelling circumstances for broadening these powers, since the record fails to establish what judgment the ward might have exercised in the face of her own total impoverishment. The power to make such gifts as were made in this case cannot reasonably be implied as necessary or incidental to a conservator's express duties under General Statutes § 45-75(a). Therefore, the Probate Court correctly determined that it was without jurisdiction to allow them.

The conservatrices contend, however, that the Probate Court was empowered to allow their gifts under the so-called "doctrine of substituted judgment." According to this judicial doctrine, the Probate Court may authorize gifts from the estate of an incompetent, not for the purpose of aiding needy relatives, but solely for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary inheritance taxes or expenses of administration where it appears that the ward, if a sane and reasonably prudent person, would so plan his estate, and where the proposed dispositions are made in accordance with the ward's testamentary intent. See note, "Power of Court or Guardian to Make Noncharitable Gifts or Allowances Out of Funds of Incompetent Ward," 24 A.L.R.3d 863, 901, § 16 (1969, 1985 Sup.). In the present case the Probate Court expressly found that the ward "would have made these gifts if competent and that the doctrine of 'Substituted Judgment' would apply in other states where the powers of the Conservator is greater." It is undisputed that the children and grandchildren of Betzes were the natural objects of the ward's bounty.

The Probate Court correctly held that the doctrine of substituted judgment had not been adopted in this state at the time these gifts were made. As stated above, this court traditionally has strictly construed the statutory powers of a conservator and the Probate Court in the management and administration of an incompetent's estate. In 1983, the legislature codified the doctrine of substituted judgment when it enacted No. 83-62 of the 1983 Public Acts, which sets forth limited conditions under which a conservator may make gifts from the property of the ward's estate. General Statutes § 45-75(e...

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  • In re Michaela Lee R., (SC 16122)
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