Florida Elder Law Blog - A blog by Elder Law Associates, South Florida's premier elder law attorneys, who handle elder law, medicaid planning, guardianships and much, much more.
In a recent Florida case, Bank of America rebuffed the request of an agent under a durable power of attorney (POA) to withdraw funds from a jointly held account. The agent fought back in court and just won a $64,000 judgment against the bank. (It's always important to find a qualified
Florida Elder Law Attorney who can litigate the cases.)
Clarence Smith, Sr., named his son, Clarence Smith, Jr., as his agent under a POA. When his father no longer wanted to manage his own finances, he asked Clarence Jr. to step in as his agent. Clarence Jr. reviewed his father's account activity and became suspicious about some withdrawals from a bank account that Clarence Sr. owned jointly with a friend from his retirement community.
Acting as his father's agent under the POA, Clarence Jr., asked Bank of America to transfer $65,000 from the account into a new account that listed only his father as the owner. Before doing so, Bank of America contacted the other person named on the account. When she told the bank that she did not want the funds withdrawn and also accused Clarence Jr. of stealing his father's money, Bank of America refused to honor Clarence Jr.'s request. The other account owner then withdrew all of the funds from the account and placed them into her own account. Clarence Sr. died several weeks later.
Clarence Jr. sued Bank of America under a Florida law that imposes penalties on financial institutions that refuse to honor reasonable requests from agents named in properly executed POAs. In November 2009, after a week-long trial, a Florida jury returned a verdict against the bank and awarded $64,142 to Clarence Sr.'s estate. The jury found that Bank of America had not acted reasonably when it rejected Clarence Jr.'s request, even though the joint owner of the bank account had not agreed to the release of the funds.
Bank of America plans to appeal. "We believe that neither the facts nor the law support the verdict," said spokeswoman Shirley Norton.
Labels: florida elder law, Florida Elder Law Attorney, Florida Litigation
