In re Campbell, 26540.

Citation666 S.E.2d 908,379 S.C. 593
Decision Date08 September 2008
Docket NumberNo. 26540.,26540.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of South Carolina
PartiesIn the Matter of Betsy M. CAMPBELL and Robert S. Campbell, Jr., Mary Schuyler Campbell, Respondent, v. Betsy M. Campbell and Robert S. Campbell, Jr., of whom Betsy M. Campbell is Petitioner.

R. David Massey and E. Zachary Horton, both of Brown Massey Evans McLeod & Haynsworth, of Greenville, James R. Thompson, of Saint-Amand Thompson & Brown, of Gaffney, and William E. Winter, Jr., of Winter & Rhoden, of Gaffney, for Petitioner.

Randall Scott Hiller, of Greenville, for Respondent.

Chief Justice TOAL.

This Court granted Petitioner Betsy M. Campbell's (Mother) petition to review a court of appeals decision setting aside a probate court order appointing two examiners to evaluate Mother's mental competency in a conservatorship proceeding brought by her daughter, Respondent Mary Schuyler Campbell (Daughter). We affirm the decision of the court of appeals as modified in accordance with our interpretation of the statute governing the appointment of examiners in conservatorship proceedings.

FACTUAL/PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Daughter petitioned to have herself appointed as conservator of Mother's assets before the probate court for Cherokee County, claiming that (1) Mother was no longer mentally capable of caring for herself or her assets due to dementia, and (2) Mother's assets were being reduced due to undue influence over Mother by her financial advisor William W. Brown (Brown).1 Mother filed an answer denying the need for the appointment of a conservator and arguing that if the court determined she needed a conservator, Brown had priority to assume the role as her attorney in fact.

In April 2002, Mother listed Dr. John Cathcart and Dr. Preston Edwards to testify at the conservatorship proceeding as expert witnesses on her behalf. Drs. Cathcart and Edwards were both lifelong personal friends of Mother, and Dr. Edwards had occasionally seen Mother for medical reasons over a period of nearly fifty years when Mother primarily resided in Gaffney. Shortly after being designated as expert witnesses, Mother invited each of the doctors and their wives to dinner while she was in Greenville on other matters. Although the doctors were family friends of Mother, their respective social outings with her at this time were also for purposes of observation and evaluation of Mother as her expert witnesses. The record reveals that Mother's counsel provided Dr. Edwards with a document entitled "Outline of Testimony" summarizing what he might be asked at trial as an expert witness. The document was also intended to guide Dr. Edwards in his conversation with Mother at their dinner together, indicated by the document's listing of "discussion of business or financial matters," followed by the exclamation "don't ask if none!"

In August 2002, the probate court ordered the appointment of Drs. Cathcart and Edwards to examine Mother, evaluate her mental competency, and render an opinion to the probate court on the need for the appointment of a conservator pursuant to S.C.Code Ann. § 62-5-407 (1987). Mother does not dispute that the probate court conferred with Mother's counsel during the preparation of the order appointing Drs. Cathcart and Edwards. On the other hand, Daughter was entirely unaware that the probate court was considering an appointment of examiners until Daughter's counsel received a copy of the order from Mother's counsel postmarked two days after the probate court had actually issued the order. Daughter immediately filed a motion to reconsider the appointment on the grounds that Drs. Cathcart and Edwards were not "disinterested parties." The probate court scheduled a hearing for October.

Prior to the probate court's appointment of examiners, however, arrangements had already been made for Drs. Cathcart and Edwards to evaluate Mother, and therefore, only seven days after the court's appointment, a privately chartered jet flew Drs. Cathcart and Edwards, accompanied by Brown, to see Mother at her current residence in Florida. The doctors each testified that they met with Mother's Florida psychiatrist, visited with Mother and Father during the afternoon, and flew back by the same private jet that same evening. Each doctor was compensated $2,000.00.

At the October hearing, the probate court determined that § 62-5-407 did not require the appointed examiners to be disinterested and that the doctors were "well know[n] to this Court as outstanding physicians and as qualified to act as the Court-appointed examiners in the matter." Therefore, the probate court denied Daughter's motion to reconsider the appointment of Drs. Cathcart and Edwards.

At the same hearing, Daughter moved for recusal after the probate judge directed unfavorable personal comments at Daughter's counsel. Daughter additionally based her motion for recusal on the ex parte communications with Mother's counsel prior to the appointment of mental health examiners. The probate court denied the motion and proceeded to a hearing on the merits of Daughter's petition to appoint a conservator.

The only evidence presented as to the merits of Daughter's petition was the testimony of Drs. Cathcart and Edwards.2 The doctors testified that they did not perform any medical or psychological examinations of Mother, however both were confident in their findings that Mother was competent to handle her financial affairs based on their personal friendship with Mother, their informal dinner with Mother in April 2002, communication with Mother's Florida psychiatrist, and the August 2002 visit with Mother in Florida. The probate court therefore dismissed Daughter's petition for appointment of a conservator.

Daughter appealed the probate court's orders to the circuit court, alleging that the probate court erred in (1) appointing examiners that were the product of ex parte communications; (2) appointing examiners that were not disinterested parties; (3) failing to grant Daughter's motion for recusal; and (4) finding Mother mentally competent. The circuit court set aside the probate court's order appointing the examiners, finding that § 62-5-407 implicitly required court-appointed examiners to be disinterested, and that the probate court therefore abused its discretion in naming Drs. Cathcart and Edwards as examiners when Mother had previously designated them as expert witnesses on her behalf. Because of the probate court's error in this regard, the circuit court set aside the probate court's order dismissing Daughter's petition to appoint a conservator. The circuit court also found that the Cherokee County probate judge should have recused himself and therefore transferred the case to Spartanburg County Probate Court.

Mother appealed and the court of appeals affirmed the circuit court's ruling setting aside the probate court's appointment of examiners and order of dismissal. In the Matter of Campbell, 367 S.C. 209, 625 S.E.2d 233 (Ct.App.2006). The court did not address the issue of recusal, noting that Mother conceded the issue had been rendered moot due to the death of the probate judge during the pendency of the appeal. Id. at 212 n. 1, 625 S.E.2d at 235 n. 1.

This Court granted certiorari, and Mother raises the following issue for review:

Did the court of appeals err in affirming the circuit court's order setting aside the probate court's orders based upon a determination that S.C.Code Ann. § 62-5-407 implicitly requires that court-appointed physicians be disinterested?

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The interpretation of a statute is a question of law for the Court. Vaughan v. McLeod Regional Med. Ctr., 372 S.C. 505 509, 642 S.E.2d 744, 746 (2007). An appellate court may decide questions of law with no particular deference to the trial court. Dreher v. Dreher, 370 S.C. 75, 79, 634 S.E.2d 646, 648 (2006).

LAW/ANALYSIS

Petitioner argues that the court of appeals erred in interpreting S.C.Code Ann. § 62-5-407 to implicitly require that court-appointed examiners in a conservatorship proceeding be disinterested and independent.

The cardinal rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and effectuate the intent of the legislature. Dreher, 370 S.C. at 80, 634 S.E.2d at 648. To this end, the words of the statute must be given their plain and...

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