In re Guardianship of Doyle, No. A09-452.

• Decision Date: 02 February 2010
• Docket Number: No. A09-452.
• Citation: 778 N.W.2d 342
• Parties: In the Matter of the GUARDIANSHIP and Conservatorship OF Harold F. DOYLE, Ward.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

778 N.W.2d 342

In the Matter of the GUARDIANSHIP and Conservatorship OF Harold F. DOYLE, Ward.

No. A09-452.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

February 2, 2010.

Thomas C. Pearson, Gammello, Qualley & Pearson, PLLC, Baxter, MN, for appellants Peterson.

Denise Fischer, Duluth, MN, pro se respondent.

Considered and decided by TOUSSAINT, Presiding Judge; MINGE, Judge; and LARKIN, Judge.

OPINION

MINGE, Judge.

Appellant guardians and conservators of ward Harold F. Doyle challenge the district court's order disallowing their accounts and certain fees and expenses paid to them out of the ward's estate. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

FACTS

In July 2004, the district court in its capacity as the probate court¹ appointed appellants Paul Peterson and H. Frances Peterson as guardians and conservators of Harold Doyle, a senior citizen who resides in a group home. Doyle was not indigent. Acting as conservators, appellants charged various expenses to and paid their claimed fees out of Doyle's estate. Between 2005 and 2008, appellants filed four annual accounts with the district court administrator, detailing their fees and expenses. The fees and expenses in the four accounts totaled $26,514.74. Initially, appellants did not move for approval of their accounts, and no action was taken.

In April 2008, the district court ordered appellants to show cause as to why the fees and the annual accounts were not excessive. In October 2008, a hearing was held on the show-cause order. At the outset, the district court explained that the purpose of the hearing was to address the order to show cause. Appellants and their counsel were present. The ward was unrepresented. An attorney appeared at the hearing on behalf of the ward's nephew, apparently to facilitate the appointment of a relative of the ward to replace appellants as his conservator/guardian. This attorney raised no objections to appellants' accounts. Appellants testified, but were unable to answer many questions about their accounts, fees, and expenses, and reported that they did not have records that would enable them to reconstruct their work.

On December 30, 2008, the district court entered extensive findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a detailed order. In its findings, the district court summarized portions of the Service Fee Policy for Guardians and Conservators adopted by Aitkin County Health and Human Services (Service Fee Policy) and of the Standards of Practice adopted by the Minnesota Association for Guardianship and Conservatorship (Standards of Practice). The district court found that the billing records that appellants submitted were "extremely disorganized and inaccurate," refused to accept the four annual accounts, determined that the claimed fees and expenses were excessive and many specific items were not proper, required appellants to submit accurate and proper annual accounts, and directed appellants to repay $17,722.50. Although the district court provided detailed reasons for most of its determinations, the district court disallowed a lump sum of $5,000 as "excessive, unreasonable, and unnecessary." The district court set March 15, 2009, as the date by which "accurate and proper" accounts had to be submitted and disallowed fees and expenses repaid.

No judgment has been entered. Appellants have not requested reconsideration or amended findings, filed or submitted a petition for allowance of modified accounts, or requested that the district court allow comment on or reopen the record to address matters contained in its December 30, 2008 order. This appeal followed.

ISSUES

1. Is the district court's December 30, 2008 order appealable?

2. Does the district court have authority to disallow fees and expenses of a guardian/conservator on its own initiative?

3. Did the district court err in relying on two documents that were not in the record: the Service Fee Policy and the Standards of Practice?

4. Did the district court abuse its discretion in disallowing specific fees and in disallowing $5,000 generally?

ANALYSIS

I.

At the outset, we address on our own initiative the question of whether the district court's order is appealable. Generally, appeals may only be taken from a final judgment. Minn. R. Civ.App. P. 103.03(a). However, the rules also permit appeals from orders or decisions that by statute are appealable. Id. at 103.03(j). The probate code provides that appeals may be taken from

(9) an order allowing, or refusing to allow, an account of a representative or any part of it when the amount in controversy exceeds $100; ... [or]

(15) an order made directing, or refusing to direct, the payment of representative's fees ..., and in such case the representative ... shall ... be deemed an aggrieved party and entitled to appeal.

Minn.Stat. § 525.71(a) (2008). A guardian or conservator is a "representative." Minn.Stat. § 525.80 (2008).

Here, appellants had been serving as guardians and conservators. The district court unequivocally disallowed $17,722.50 in fees and charges including the following: a $250-per-month base fee, a $50-per-hour rate for guardian/conservator services, $7,472.50 for a special accounting, and $5,000 as a lump sum. This action has a final-determination character. However, at the same time, the district court concluded that "$3,819.13 billed ... in the 4th Annual Account [was] disallowed until a complete set of billing records are provided to the court by [appellants]" and ordered appellants to resubmit their accounts, which arguably allowed the possibility that the district court's consideration of the remaining fees would be reconsidered based on resubmitted accounts.

Based on the final nature of the district court rulings disallowing more than $100 of certain of appellants' fees and expenditures, we conclude that the district court's December 30, 2008 order is appealable. Accordingly, we proceed to consider the objections raised by appellants to the December 30, 2008 order. In engaging in this review, we recognize that the district court had not completed its consideration of significant aspects of the proceeding.²

II.

The first issue as raised by appellants is whether the district court has "jurisdiction" to disallow their accounts and fees when no party has objected to appellants' accounts or requested the repayment of fees. Appellants' arguments deal less with jurisdiction and more with the district court's sua sponte decision to disallow fees and expenses in an uncontested proceeding.³ A probate court has the power "to take all ... action necessary and proper to administer justice in the matters which come before it." Minn.Stat. § 524.1-302(b) (2008). "[P]rotecting and preserving the property of the ward is the real purpose of guardianship." In re Guardianship of Schober, 303 Minn. 226, 229, 226 N.W.2d 895, 898 (1975). In order to ensure that this purpose is fulfilled, probate courts are given jurisdiction over persons under guardianship, including jurisdiction over the management and disposition of their property and the care and protection of their estates. Snicker v. Byers, 176 Minn. 541, 544-45, 224 N.W. 152, 154 (1929).

The ward's best interests must be the determinative factor in guiding the court when making any choice on the ward's behalf. Rickel v. Peck, 211 Minn. 576, 583, 2 N.W.2d 140, 144 (1942). When a district court determines that "a guardian or conservator has rendered necessary services or has incurred necessary expenses for the benefit of the ward," it "may order reimbursement or compensation to be paid from the estate" of the ward. Minn.Stat. § 524.5-502(c) (2008).⁴ The allowance of fees is a matter of discretion for the district court. In re Estate of Baumgartner, 274 Minn. 337, 346, 144 N.W.2d 574, 580 (1966). "The courts have a duty to prevent dissipation of estates through the allowance of exorbitant fees to those who administer them." In re Estate of Weisberg, 242 Minn. 150, 152, 64 N.W.2d 370, 372 (1954).

Appellants rely on In re Conservatorship/Guardianship of Robinson, in which this court stated that "[t]he matters determined in an action or judicial proceeding are the questions decided in determining the issues raised by the conflicting claims of the parties," and that a court has "jurisdiction to determine only the questions thus raised." 409 N.W.2d 269, 271 (Minn. App.1987) (quoting In re Enger's Will, 225 Minn. 229, 238-39, 30 N.W.2d 694, 701 (1948)). But in Robinson, we also stated that the matters over which a court has "jurisdiction" in an accounting "include the transactions set forth in the account." Id. (quoting Enger's Will, 225 Minn. at 238-39, 30 N.W.2d at 701).

Appellants' argument would relegate the judicial role in reviewing and approving accounts to a rubber-stamp function. The very purpose of the hearing in this case was for appellants to show cause why the fees in their accounts should be allowed. While no one appeared to object to appellants' accounts at the hearing, there was no one present at the hearing who represented Doyle. To ensure that Doyle's estate was protected and to serve Doyle's best interests, the district court had a responsibility to review the fees that appellants charged Doyle's estate. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court was authorized to disallow fees and expenses in appellants' accounts, and we note the district court's care and attention to detail in undertaking its task.

III.

The next issue is whether the district court erred in considering sua sponte the Service Fee Policy setting the appropriate fees to be charged when a guardian represents an indigent ward in Aitkin County and the Standards of Practice promulgated by the Minnesota Association of Guardianship and Conservatorship. Generally, district courts do not gather their own evidence. See Claesgens v. Animal Rescue League, Inc., 173 Minn. 61, 63, 216 N.W. 535, 536 (1927). But a district court may take judicial notice of adjudicative and legislative...