State v. Simanonok

• Decision Date: 29 March 1988
• Citation: 539 A.2d 211
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Joseph E. SIMANONOK, Personal Representative of the Estate of Anthony Simanonok, et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 211

539 A.2d 211

STATE of Maine v. Joseph E. SIMANONOK, Personal Representative of the Estate of Anthony Simanonok, et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued March 11, 1988.

Decided March 29, 1988.

Dennis Harnish (orally), Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Human Services, Frank W. DeLong, Hunt, Thompson & Bowie, Portland, Frank G. Chapman, Augusta, for plaintiff.

Joseph E. Simanonok, pro se (orally).

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and NICHOLS, ROBERTS, GLASSMAN, SCOLNIK and CLIFFORD, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

In this civil proceeding originating in the York County Probate Court, the Superior Court after a jury trial entered judgment against the Estate of Anthony Simanonok, late of Waterboro, in favor of the State of Maine in the principal amount of $11,810, representing the unpaid cost of care received by decedent while a patient at Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI) during the last 19 months of his life. The satisfaction of that judgment is secured by an attachment by trustee process, approved by the Probate Court, of a savings account in the amount of some $20,000 in the Biddeford Savings Bank standing jointly in the names of the decedent, his son Joseph E. Simanonok of Bradenton, Florida, and a grandson of the decedent. ¹ The son also serves as the personal representative of the defendant Estate of Anthony Simanonok by appointment of the Probate Court. Through persistent and convoluted litigation moves in the Probate and Superior Courts over a period now of more than six years, along with a failed attempt to remove the case to the federal district court, the son without benefit of counsel has vigorously fought the State's claim for reimbursement, purporting to speak on behalf of the Estate, as well as on behalf of his own rights in the joint bank account. Prior to the jury trial that resulted in the money judgment in the State's favor, the Superior Court had dismissed as without merit two pleadings denominated counterclaims that the son filed against third parties attacking the freezing and attachment of the joint bank account and the application of social security benefits of the decedent to the payment of his expenses at AMHI. The Superior Court had also denied his repeated motions to dissolve the trustee process. Joseph Simanonok is now before us on appeal seeking vacation of the money judgment and the other orders of the Superior Court.

We find utterly groundless every attack made by appellant on the actions taken by the trial courts. For example, his only comprehensible claims of error supposedly committed in the jury trial challenged the Superior Court's quashing of his witness subpoenas and its refusal to give 19 instructions requested by him. He, however, had not tendered the required attendance and travel fees to any of the subpoenaed witnesses, see M.R.Civ.P. 45(c), and every one of his requested instructions either was irrelevant to any issue at trial before the jury, or was not generated by any evidence before the jury, or was simply wrong in its statement of the law. See First of Maine Commodities v. Dube, 534 A.2d 1298, 1302 (Me.1987); Hamor v. Maine Coast Mem. Hosp., 483 A.2d 718, 722 (Me.1984); Schneider v. Richardson, 438 A.2d 896, 897 (Me.1981). He has shown no plausible ground in law for dissolving the trustee process on the joint bank account, and any discussion of his contentions on the dismissed "counterclaims" would dignify them beyond their worth. ²

There exists another, even more basic difficulty with this appeal. The notice of appeal is signed only by Joseph Simanonok, a nonlawyer. The Estate of Anthony Simanonok has not appealed from the money judgment entered against it in favor of the State of Maine; nor has the Estate filed a brief or otherwise participated in this appeal in the only way in which it might do so, namely, through representation by a person admitted to practice law in Maine. The Simanonok Estate is the legal entity against whom the State of Maine asserts its claim for reimbursement, and a lay person, even though he has been appointed by the Probate Court to administer the probate estate, cannot represent the Estate in court, any more than the lay president of a close corporation could represent the corporate entity in Land Management, Inc. v. Department of Envtl. Protection, 368 A.2d 602, 603-04 (Me.1977). See also Spickler v. Flynn, 494 A.2d 1369, 1372 n. 3 (Me.1985).

Joseph Simanonok's attempt on this appeal to represent the Estate of Anthony Simanonok in seeking reversal of the State's money judgment against it constitutes the practice of law. For the protection of the client, the general public, and the courts, such practice of law is reserved to persons who have established their qualification therefor by admission to the bar. See 4 M.R.S.A. § 807 (Supp.1987). See also Frazee v. Citizens Fidelity Bank & Trust Co., 393 S.W.2d 778, 782-83 (Ky.1964); State ex rel. Baker v. County Court of Rock County, 29 Wis.2d 1, 8, 138 N.W.2d 162, 166 (1965); Annot., Necessity that Executor or Administrator be Represented by Counsel in Presenting Matters in Probate Court, 19 A.L.R.3d 1104, 1105-06 (1968). As the Wisconsin Supreme Court explained:

[A]n executor's appearance in the conduct of a probate proceeding is not to be deemed the mere appearance of an individual in his own behalf, but is also a representation of others, and therefore an executor not licensed to practice law must appear by an attorney.

State ex rel. Baker v. County Court of Rock County, 29 Wis.2d at 8, 138 N.W.2d at 166.

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