Opinion ID: 2160038
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Disregard of Mollie Orshansky's Own Plans and Wishes

Text: A principal theme of the Guardianship Act is that the wishes of the subject of an intervention proceeding regarding the decisions to be made are entitled to consideration and respect  notwithstanding that the subject of the proceeding is incapacitated as defined in D.C.Code § 21-2011(11). [13] To begin with, the Act emphasizes that a finding that an individual is incapacitated shall not constitute a finding of legal incompetence. D.C.Code § 21-2004. Consistent with this premise, the Act contains several provisions to ensure that the court receives and weighs the views of the incapacitated individual. The petition for the appointment of a guardian and notice of the hearing on the petition must be served on the allegedly incapacitated individual. See D.C.Code §§ 21-2041(c), -2042(c); see also D.C.Code § 21-2053(a) (incorporating notice requirements for petition for appointment of a conservator or other protective order). Such notice may not be waived. See D.C.Code §§ 21-2032, -2042(d). Thereafter, the individual alleged to be incapacitated shall be present at the hearing unless good cause is shown for the absence. D.C.Code §§ 21-2041(h), -2054(e). The individual shall be represented by counsel and is entitled to present evidence and to cross-examine witnesses, including any court-appointed examiner or visitor. Id. If the subject of the proceeding needs an attorney, the court shall appoint one. See D.C.Code § 21-2041(d). The attorney who represents the subject of a guardianship or protective proceeding is statutorily charged with the duty ... to represent zealously that individual's legitimate interests. D.C.Code § 21-2033(b) (emphasis added). At a minimum, the Act states, this duty shall include: (1) Personal interviews with the subject of the intervention proceeding; (2) Explaining to the subject of the intervention proceeding, in the language, mode of communication, and terms that the individual is most likely to understand, the nature and possible consequences of the proceeding, the alternatives that are available, and the rights to which the individual is entitled; and (3) Securing and presenting evidence and testimony and offering arguments to protect the rights of the subject of the guardianship or protective proceeding and further that individual's interests. Id. As an additional tool to be used when appropriate, the Act provides that the court may appoint a guardian ad litem to assist the subject of an intervention proceeding to determine his or her interests in regard to the guardianship or protective proceeding or to make that determination if the subject of the proceeding is unconscious or otherwise wholly incapable of determining his or her interests in that proceeding even with assistance. D.C.Code § 21-2033(a). [14] Elaborating on this assignment, Super. Ct. Prob. R. 306(d) states that a guardian ad litem shall: (1) Inquire thoroughly into all the circumstances that a prudent individual in the position of the person for whom the guardian ad litem has been appointed would consider in determining his or her interests in the proceedings; and (2) Encourage the individual whom the guardian ad litem is serving to participate, to the maximum extent of that individual's ability, in all decisions and to act on his or her own behalf on all matters in which he or she is able. On the specific issue of whom to appoint as guardian of an incapacitated individual, the Act assigns the highest priority to the incapacitated individual's own stated preference: Unless lack of qualification or other good cause dictates the contrary, the court shall appoint a guardian in accordance with the incapacitated individual's current stated wishes or his or her most recent nomination in a durable power of attorney. D.C.Code § 21-2043(b). [15] The Act likewise accords highest priority to the wishes of the incapacitated individual in the appointment of a conservator. See D.C.Code § 21-2057(a)(1), (2); see also D.C.Code § 21-2083(b) (providing that the court shall appoint a guardian or conservator in accordance with the most recent nomination in a durable power of attorney, except for good cause or disqualification).
The foregoing statutory provisions were honored only in the breach at the hearing in this case. We are compelled to conclude that the probate court abused its discretion by not giving the wishes of Mollie Orshansky the consideration to which they were entitled by law before appointing Mr. Jordan as her guardian and conservator. Little if any effort was made even to ascertain Ms. Orshansky's wishes. No guardian ad litem was appointed to assist her. Neither her own counsel nor Mr. Jordan undertook to convey Ms. Orshansky's desires to the court. The entire proceeding was conducted in her absence. And when Ms. Pollack purported to report Ms. Orshansky's views as she had expressed them, those views were disregarded without any finding as to whether Ms. Pollack's reporting was accurate.
Preliminarily, we have grave concern that, as Ms. Pollack charges on appeal, Ms. Orshansky did not receive the zealous representation of her legitimate interests to which she was entitled under D.C.Code § 21-2033(b). Unfortunately, Ms. Pollack did not raise this claim in a timely or effective manner in the probate court, though she did allude to the fact that the attorney whom the judge had appointed to represent Ms. Orshansky had not spoken to her. As the issue was not aired in the trial court, the record before us leaves many questions unanswered. In this court, however, Ms. Castro acknowledges that she did not interview Ms. Orshansky, which the statute expressly required her to do. It is highly disturbing  not to say remarkable  that a court-appointed attorney who had not met or spoken with Ms. Orshansky waived her presence at the hearing, stipulated to her client's incapacity, presented no evidence of her client's wishes and opposed the admission of documents purporting to indicate her client's views (the health care proxy [16] and the signed statement), and vigorously advocated in favor of appointments that her client may have opposed. Ms. Castro's brief for Ms. Orshansky on appeal states that the only reason she did not visit Ms. Orshansky is because she was appointed after Pollack surreptitiously removed Ms. Orshansky from the hospital and from the District, and because Pollack has refused to comply with the Superior Court orders. The brief also asserts that, after the court appointed Mr. Jordan temporary guardian and conservator and directed him to see Ms. Orshansky in New York, Ms. Castro was entitled to rely on Jordan's reports of Ms. Orshansky's condition and their conversations regarding these proceedings. These justifications are singularly unconvincing. Under the Guardianship Act, Ms. Castro was not entitled to rely on Mr. Jordan; her duty, as D.C.Code § 21-2033(b) states, was to conduct an independent investigation and interview her client for herself. Nothing in the record supports the implication in Ms. Castro's brief that Ms. Pollack (or anyone else) prevented Ms. Castro from seeing Ms. Orshansky in New York, just as Mr. Jordan did. Ms. Castro never complained to the probate court that she had been denied access to Ms. Orshansky. Moreover, of course, even if Ms. Castro was prevented from interviewing her client, that does not explain how she nonetheless could undertake to represent her at the hearing as she did. The failure of appointed counsel to represent properly an incapacitated individual at an intervention hearing would be reason enough, no doubt, to reverse the decisions reached at the hearing. We are mindful, however, that given the undeveloped state of the record on this point, all the facts are not on the table. Indeed, were it not for the signal importance of adequate representation of the subject of an intervention proceeding, we likely would have followed our usual practice of refusing to address at all an issue raised for the first time on appeal. See, e.g., Barrera v. Wilson, 668 A.2d 871, 872 (D.C.1995). Accordingly, and as we are reversing on other grounds in any event, we shall refrain from commenting further on Ms. Orshansky's representation. We fully expect that on remand, if the proceeding goes forward, the court will devote appropriate attention to ensure that Ms. Orshansky's right to zealous representation is preserved.
We turn next to the fact that the probate court accepted Ms. Castro's waiver of Ms. Orshansky's presence at the hearing [17] despite the provisions in the Guardianship Act that expressly required her presence unless good cause is shown for the absence. D.C.Code §§ 21-2041(h), - 2054(e). No party to the proceeding, not even Ms. Pollack, objected to going forward without Ms. Orshansky. Even on appeal, Ms. Pollack has not raised this as a ground for reversal. Nonetheless, given the concerns we have expressed above concerning the adequacy of Ms. Orshansky's representation in this matter, we cannot ignore this departure from what the law commands for the protection of the fundamental rights of the subject of the petition. Perhaps good cause existed for going forward with the hearing in Ms. Orshansky's absence, but it was not set forth on the record and we fail to perceive it. We do not believe that in and of itself the January 28 order of the New York Supreme Court directing that Ms. Orshansky not be removed from New York constituted good cause to proceed in the District of Columbia without her. The parties seeking to go forward in this jurisdiction could have asked the New York court to modify its order so as to allow Ms. Orshansky to be brought back to the District for the hearing here. If anything, the pendency of an intervention proceeding in the jurisdiction in which Ms. Orshansky then was located and in which all her family resided  a proceeding, moreover, in which all interested parties were participating  might weigh against the need to hold any hearing at all in the District of Columbia, or to make any appointments here. Although Ms. Orshansky had lived in the District and had property here, and thus had substantial and arguably greater ties to this jurisdiction, this does not appear to be a situation in which her legitimate interests or those of any other party were being prejudiced by avoidance of judicial review or forum shopping, or in which deference to the New York court would have amounted to rewarding a party for its wrongdoing. Cf. In re B.B.R., 566 A.2d 1032, 1042 (D.C.1989) (Schwelb, J., concurring) (discussing duty of courts in interstate child custody litigation to guard against attempts by parties to create jurisdictional facts through wrongful conduct and thereby prejudice their adversaries). Thus, on remand it would be appropriate for the court to reexamine the desirability of going forward, given the presence in New York of Ms. Orshansky and her family and the pendency of a guardianship and conservatorship proceeding there. Nor did the evidence of Ms. Orshansky's incapacity demonstrate good cause for her absence from the proceeding. Incapacity for purposes of the Guardianship Act does not equate to inability to participate meaningfully at a hearing. The court made no finding that Ms. Orshansky was incompetent in that sense, nor would the evidence have permitted such a finding. The conclusory examiner's report that accompanied the Hospital's petition was not authored by a psychiatrist or gerontologist and did not address Ms. Orshansky's overall competence. The diagnosis of dementia did not provide enough information to answer the question, and the record contains no other expert evaluation of Ms. Orshansky's mental condition. At best, judging by the testimony of Mr. Jordan and Ms. Pollack, there existed a genuine factual dispute over Ms. Orshansky's competence to weigh in on the issues before the court. Although Mr. Jordan reported that Ms. Orshansky was unable to comprehend what was going on, Ms. Pollack testified that her aunt could and did understand and express herself coherently. Without either Ms. Orshansky's presence or an expert evaluation, it is difficult to see how the issue of Ms. Orshansky's competence fairly could have been resolved. [18] Similarly, the evidence did not establish that subjecting Ms. Orshansky to a return trip to the District of Columbia to attend the hearing would have been deleterious to her health. The court evidently did not think so, since it directed Mr. Jordan to bring Ms. Orshansky back to the District in its final order. But if Ms. Orshansky's frail health did counsel against requiring her to travel for the hearing here, that would count as another reason for deferring to the proceeding in New York. We do not reverse simply because the hearing was held without Ms. Orshansky. If that were the only flaw in the proceeding, it conceivably might be cured on remand by a retrospective determination that good cause in fact did exist to excuse Ms. Orshansky's absence. But the flaws in the proceeding ran deeper.
In Ms. Orshansky's absence, Ms. Pollack undertook to convey what her aunt purportedly wished. Sub silentio, however, the court disregarded the relevant testimony entirely. The court's statement that it found Ms. Pollack's testimony inconsistent and troubling in many respects that the court then enumerated is not a finding that would permit us to conclude that the court considered, but chose to disbelieve, Ms. Pollack's testimony about Ms. Orshansky's plans and wishes. The court did not discuss the evidence presented by Ms. Pollack that Ms. Orshansky opposed the appointment of Mr. Jordan, did not wish to be returned to Washington, had made plans in advance for the care of her person and the management of her assets in the event of her incapacitation, and wanted those plans to be honored. This was critical evidence that the court was required to consider in making the discretionary determination of whom to appoint as guardian and conservator; indeed, as we have noted, Ms. Orshansky's preference had priority under D.C.Code §§ 21-2043(b) and -2057(a)(1) and (2). In this regard, we think it important to observe that the health care proxy satisfied on its face the definition in D.C.Code § 21-2081 of a durable power of attorney and the definition in D.C.Code § 21-2202(3) of a durable power of attorney for health care. [19] Moreover, in authorizing Ms. Pollack to make any and all health care decisions for Ms. Orshansky if she became incapacitated, the proxy granted Ms. Pollack one of the core powers that a general guardian of an incapacitated individual may exercise. See D.C.Code § 21-2047(a)(3), (b)(4) and (c)(1)-(4). The health care proxy, if valid (as Ms. Castro concedes it was), therefore triggered the requirement set forth in D.C.Code § 21-2043(b) that unless good cause dictates the contrary, the court shall appoint a guardian in accordance with the incapacitated individual's ... most recent nomination in a durable power of attorney. To comply with this requirement, the court first needs to recognize it explicitly, which the court did not do in this case, and only then determine whether good cause dictates the rejection of the incapacitated individual's own choice. [20] In sum, by making the decision to appoint Mr. Jordan as guardian and conservator without taking into account the contrary plans and wishes of Ms. Orshansky, the probate court disregarded the policy and requirements of the Guardianship Act and failed to give proper weight to a factor that she was required to consider. This was an abuse of discretion that necessitates reversal. We are constrained to say more, for otherwise it might be thought that in determining that Ms. Orshansky's best interests called for returning her to the District of Columbia under the protection of Mr. Jordan, the court found that sufficient grounds existed to justify overriding Ms. Orshansky's apparently contrary arrangements and desires. As we now proceed to discuss, however, the court's determination of Ms. Orshansky's best interests lacked an adequate factual foundation.