Opinion ID: 2160038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Appointment of Guardian

Text: We appreciate that the court had legitimate concerns about Ms. Orshansky's welfare and whether her relatives could be relied upon to meet her needs. The inability of the family to foresee Ms. Orshansky's deterioration in November and December of 2001 and take more aggressive steps to aid her before her hospitalization was worrisome, even if it also was understandable in view of Ms. Orshansky's resistance to intervention in her life as well as other circumstances. Moreover, certain subsequent actions, such as Ms. Pollack's surreptitious removal of her aunt from the Hospital and her refusal to supply financial records to APS, were not calculated to inspire confidence, even if those actions were well-motivated. Nonetheless, while these were red flags that called for further inquiry, they were not dispositive. Judge Christian had no doubt of the family's love for Ms. Orshansky; Mr. Jordan's unsubstantiated suspicions notwithstanding, the record does not support any other conclusion. As a general rule, kinship and familial ties are regarded by the courts with particular partiality when they find it necessary to select a guardian . . . [and] such will not be disregarded except upon strong grounds, the presumption being that one of the next of kin or other relative by blood or marriage ... is likely to be more solicitous than a stranger would be of the welfare of the incompetent. Peter G. Guthrie, Annotation, Priority and Preference in Appointment of Conservator or Guardian for an Incompetent, 65 A.L.R.3d 991, 998 (1975) (citing cases). See, e.g., Application of Kauffman, 55 A.D.2d 526, 389 N.Y.S.2d 5 (1976) (Absent a demonstrable conflict of interest or objection . . . it was an improvident exercise of discretion not to accede to the wishes and concerns of those most closely affiliated with the incompetent.) (internal quotations and citations omitted). Any fair decision in this case would have to take into account the benefits that Ms. Orshansky might reap from residing in her own, familiar apartment in close proximity to, and in ongoing contact with, her sister and other relatives  as opposed to the alternative espoused by Mr. Jordan of her taking up residence over two hundred miles away from her family in her Washington apartment or a nursing home. [27] Thus the critical issue before the court was whether Ms. Orshansky was being cared for properly in New York, or whether she needed the sort of round-the-clock care by medical specialists that Mr. Jordan proposed and Ms. Pollack rejected. Again, we do not dispute that the court identified legitimate concerns about Ms. Orshansky's care, though we think it imperative to add that a suitable guardian has considerable discretion in gauging how best to care for his or her ward, and the Guardianship Act does not call for judicial micromanagement and second-guessing. Moreover, a balanced appraisal of Ms. Pollack's and her family's efforts on Ms. Orshansky's behalf would have to take into account the not insubstantial measures that they took to provide proper care for her, as described by Ms. Pollack in her testimony. But the main point to emphasize is that the level of care that Ms. Orshansky needed was a complex medical issue that lay outside the realm of common knowledge and everyday experience and therefore required expert medical testimony for its resolution by the court in this case. In re M.D., 758 A.2d 27, 32 (D.C.2000) (citation omitted) (holding that medical testimony was required to evaluate whether a mother reasonably should have done more than she did to take care of her child's skin condition). Without expert testimony, the record did not furnish a sufficient factual foundation for the court to conclude that Ms. Orshansky needed more intensive care than she was getting in New York, or that Ms. Pollack was not attending properly to her aunt's welfare. It is true that the court confronted a situation in which the parties before it fail[ed] to present [the] critical medical information. In re M.D., 758 A.2d at 33. Like the child neglect law that this court discussed in that case, however, the Guardianship Act is remedial legislation under which the probate court acts in a parens patriae role to protect the best interests of the incapacitated individual before it. To achieve that paramount objective, the court ought not to be passive in the face of what it recognizes is a deficient presentation of evidence. Id. at 34. By authorizing appointment of an appropriately qualified examiner and visitor, the Act gives the court the tools to obtain the expert testimony it needed to determine Ms. Orshansky's best interests and resolve the conflict before it. The court should have used those tools in this case. Had the court done so, it likely would have avoided the problem of a record devoid of material evidence. Alternatively, the court had the authority in its capacity as parens patriae to direct the parties to augment the record with expert testimony. Id. Given the options available to it, we expect that if this case proceeds after remand, the court will ensure that an adequate record is made for its decision.