One person caught up in this mess is homeless millionaire Alan Fantin. That’s right, a homeless millionaire. Fantin has a net worth in the millions but he has had trouble getting accessing it for years. He has been under a conservatorship that was created thirty years ago after a car accident left him with a severe head injury and partial paralysis.

He owns a house which is mostly paid off. But right now it’s ridden with black mold and there are squatters in the basement who don’t pay rent and won’t leave. And Fantin hasn’t been allowed near the house since he was arrested last month and charged with assaulting his live-in girlfriend. His pre-trial monitoring says he can’t come within one-mile of his alleged victim’s residence, which is also his home, or it it was.

On top of all that he is currently engaged in a legal tussle with the guy who controls his funds, a court-appointed conservator named Scott Christian. Christian was appointed in early 2015. Since then the two have battled constantly over financial matters, ranging from the amount of Fantin’s cable bills to his marijuana use. Christian has described Fantin’s weed smoking as a “substance abuse habit.”

Fantin has had a license to use marijuana for medical purposes since 2001.

In a report in Westword, Fantin says the weed helps him with the seizures he’s bee experiencing since his accident. “When I run out of pot, my seizures are more aggressive and they tend to last longer.”

Westword also reports

…Christian refused to provide any funds for his lodging after he was banned from his house; directed him to use a public defender in his domestic-violence case rather than hire his own attorney; threatened to cut off his phone if he continued to complain; and has been less and less responsive to Fantin’s pleas for help even as his firm’s fees for the conservatorship have steadily increased.

The case offers a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of probate court, where a professional cadre of attorneys, care managers, estate administrators and others are entrusted with guarding the interests and funds of some of society’s most vulnerable people. In many instances, they may be doing just that, protecting the elderly, the sick, the mentally or physically disabled from unscrupulous relatives or neighbors — and sometimes protecting them from themselves.

It’s a fascinating story which we suggest you read. Homeless Millionaire Alan Fantin Wants His Day in Probate Court

Today, funerals are becoming the way for the rich to flaunt their wealth. Along with lavish weddings and over-the-top birthday parties, funerals have become a way for the rich to flaunt their wealth one last time.

William Villanova, general manager of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, New York’s “undertaker to the stars.” told “Accounting Today, “Whatever we can do that is legal, lawful and in keeping with the integrity of our profession, we will do.”

CEO Nigel Lymn Rose of the U.K.-based A.W. Lymn funeral home said, custom-made Rolls-Royce Phantom VII hearses and a fleet of 25 matching Rolls-Royce sedans are sought-after internationally.

He also told Accounting Today, “I get inquiries from people who have always driven Rolls-Royce’s and want their final journey to be in a Rolls-Royce. They “want to make a statement: Ride it in life, ride it in death.”

Accounting Today also told of the recent funeral of a fashion designer they did not name, where they assembled 120 gospel singers who performed as the casket was carried from the hall. A marching band performed at one service, and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall was covered in blue hydrangeas to mirror the deceased’s Hamptons home.

Businessmen and billionaires are often aggressively competitive in life “and that doesn’t end when they think they’re going to die,” said Ted Klontz, a Nashville, Tennessee-based financial psychologist.

“Hello Lawrence County, Laura Terry Powell here and I mustache you a question…,” she said, then urged people to register to vote in the June 5 primary.

“All jokes aside, I’m sorry to the Hatton community for this eyesore. “I’m going to attempt to scrub it off today and if that doesn’t work we’ll get it fixed as soon as possible.”

You can view the video here:

https://www.facebook.com/powellforprobate/videos/425599941222227/?t=7

The lawsuit, called Bagley vs. Bagley derives from a car accident in which she was the driver. She was driving a Range Rover in the Nevada desert when she hit a sagebrush and the Rover flipped the over. Her husband was thrown from the car and later died from his injuries.

CBS News reports that Bagley claims she was negligent for not keeping control of her vehicle and for “failing to maintain a proper lookout” while driving.

John Holcomb, professor in the Department of Business Ethics and Legal Studies at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, told CBS MoneyWatch the lawsuit is “quirky and also clever.”

“Bagley as the two plaintiffs is really trying to get Bagley’s insurance carrier to pay for Bagley’s negligence,” Holcomb said. “You can see why several states would see such a suit as unjust, as a victory would allow the plaintiff to be rewarded for her own negligence. That raises an ethical question of unjust reward and lack of deservedness.”

The attorneys for Bagley, the driver, said in a motion to dismiss the case

“The jury would be asked to determine how much money will fairly compensate Barbara Bagley for the harm she caused herself. The jury will be highly confused. It cannot order a person to compensate herself.

The Appeals Court disagreed and overturned a lower court decision writing

The statute contains “if” and “then” clauses. The “if” clause limits the applicability of the wrongful death statute to times “when the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another”; that is, someone other than the decedent. Once the “if” clause is satisfied, the “then” clause provides that the decedent’s “heirs, or his personal representatives for the benefit of his heirs, may maintain an action for damages against the person causing the death.”

According to CNN, in an apparent attempt to establish an alibi, the husband claimed his wife was shot by an intruder at 9:05 am. Police became suspicious when they retrieved the wife’s Fit bit from her wrist. The Fit bit data revealed that there was movement by the wearer until 10:05 AM. In fact, the party traveled 1,217 feet during that period. The police concluded the time of death was at 10:05 AM or thereafter, not to 9:05, as the husband claimed.

Forensic experts believe that evidence from Fit bits and other electronic devices are reliable and are admissible in a court of law, and will be used more frequently to support or refute live witnesses.

Currently, the husband is awaiting trial. If convicted, this will be the first case where a Fit bit is used to send a murderer “up the river”.

Javier Sanchez and Samantha Hernandez told her OB/GYN that they wanted tests for genetic disorders because they said she and Sanchez could not afford to raise a child with congenital conditions. The tests were performed, but the doctor failed to disclose to the couple the test was positive for cystic fibrosis. Hernandez specifically requested cystic fibrosis carrier screening in writing.

They had a son born in September 2014 with cystic fibrosis.

Named in the suit are the Memorial Health Services, Dr. James P. Cardin Jr. and Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories. The damages as of now are unspecified. The couple claims they will incur significant medical expenses for Justin’s lifelong care.

The lawsuit says the OB/GYN

… obtained a blood specimen from Hernandez… but failed to obtain the screening results from the laboratory and/or failed to advise Samantha and Javier of the results of the screening, which would have revealed she was a carrier of the genetic mutation which causes CF [cystic fibrosis] and would have prompted CF testing of the fetus.

Wrongful life claims are controversial but rare. Twenty-five states currently allow them.

The now defunct website ammednews.com quoted Massachusetts attorney Susan L. Crockin who specializes in reproductive genetics.

These claims allow parents of a child born with disabilities to argue that they lost their right to terminate the pregnancy after a doctor failed to detect and inform them of genetic anomalies. States that prohibit such actions still may allow plaintiffs to sue for medical negligence, or begin recognizing wrongful birth claims, Crockin said. As genetic testing proliferates, “state-by-state interpretation is going to be up for scrutiny.

One of the first major legal tests was a 2006 case in which a child in Maryland was born with a genetic anomaly, but the fetal test was interpreted in North Carolina. The Maryland Court of Appeals allowed the parents to sue under Maryland’s wrongful birth law, even though North Carolina law did not recognize the claim.

California has accepted wrongful life claims since 1980. In 1982 the California Court of Appeals made it official in a case, Turpin v. Sortini. The court wrote that

… under California common law tort principles, an afflicted child could maintain such an action and could ‘recover damages for the pain and suffering to be endured during the limited lifespan available to such a child and any special pecuniary loss resulting from the impaired condition,’ including the costs of medical care to the extent such costs were not recovered by the child’s parents.

The Daily News quotes Garden City attorney, Thomas Liotti as saying, “Our entire office was devastated by the news…It was an inexplicable act of cruelty.”

The frog, named Owen, was given to Liotti by a client 20 years ago and was an albino tree frog worth $900. Castro was quoted in the criminal complaint saying, “I thought he (Liotti) left for the day. I saw a fish bowl with a frog in it. I took the fish bowl with the frog and left the office with it…”

According to detectives, Castro was upset that his lawyer in an unrelated case was taking too long and sought out Liotti for advice. When Liotti was late for their appointment, Castro saw the frog in a fish bowl and picked it up and walked off with it. He then went to his other lawyer’s office and gave the frog it to the receptionist as a gift for his lawyer.

I spoke with Tammy the secretary. I informed her that I wanted to make a payment. I also told her I had a gift for Mr. Brewington. I showed her the frog and suggested the frog could replace the fish Mr. Brewington had lost due to it dying,” Castro allegedly told the cops.

Tammy the secretary then took the fog and released in a nearby creek, which could have dire consequences for the frog.

Liotti said, I do not really blame Brewington’s office. They too felt bad about it, but I think they should have waited and taken more steps to find out who the owner is.”

Castro copped to what he did and apologized. If convicted, he faces up to a year in jail.

In her will, Bronx widow Ellen Frey-Wouters left $300,000 to Troy and Tiger, her two cats. Her will instructed the money be used to make sure they would “never be caged” and always be lovingly cared for.

The New York Post quotes Dahlia Grizzleto, a former health aide Frey-Wouters and now caretaker of the cats as saying, “He deserves it… He’s a wonderful cat.”

Frey-Wouters, who died in 2015 was born in the Netherlands and worked for the United Nations. Her husband, a Brooklyn College professor, passed away in 1989, and the couple’s only child died in infancy.

Troy lives with Rita Pohila, another one of Frey-Wouters’ former home health aides. Pohila, declined to discuss Troy with The Post — invoking the shy feline’s “privacy” rights. Tiger made out like a bandit.He was a former alley cat who i snow living large in Ocala, Florida, dining on filet- ­mignon-flavored Fancy Feast and bedding down in a plush faux-fur bed with silk lining.

Frey-Wouters attorney, Irwin Fingerit was surprised the the bequest

“I said I didn’t think, you know, $300,000 was necessary, and I pointed out the case of the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley, who left $65,000 to a dog and became sort of a laughingstock,’’ Fingerit said during a 2016 hearing about the gift. (Helmsley actually left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble.)

“But no, no, [Frey-Wouters] insisted,” Fingerit said. “She wanted to make sure they were taken care of.”

When the cats die, the balance of their trust fund will go to Frey-Wouters’ only living family member, a sister in the Netherlands.

Attorney T.M. Zink ,an Iowa lawyer who died in 1930, left his daughter only five dollars and his wife got zilch. He stipulated that the rest of his $100,000 estate be put in a trust for 75 years and then used to create the Zink Womanless Library. Yup, it is exactly what it sounds like. The library was to have nothing created by women.

• “No woman shall at any time, under any pretense or for any purpose, be allowed inside the library, or upon the premises or have any say about anything concerned therewith, nor appoint any person or persons to perform any act connected therewith.”
• “No book, work of art, chart, magazine, picture, unless some production by a man, shall be allowed inside or outside the building, or upon the premises, and this shall include all decorations for inside and outside the building.”
• “There shall be over each entrance to the premises and building a sign in these words: ‘No Woman Admitted.’”
• “It is my intention to forever exclude all women from the premises and having anything to say or do with the trust estate and library. …”

My intense hatred of women is not of recent origin or development nor based upon any personal differences I ever had with them but is the result of my experiences with women, observations of them, and study of all literatures and philosophical works within my limited knowledge relating thereto.

The library would have no feminine decorations, no books or magazine articles by female authors, and was required to have “No Women Admitted” carved into the stone over the entrance.

Other weirdness:

Pringles founder, Fred Baur, stated in his will that he wanted to be cremated and buried inside a Pringles can. His children honored his request to bury him in one of the cans by placing part of his cremated remains in a Pringles container in his grave.

NYC hotel owner, Leona Helmsley, known as the “Queen of Mean” left $12 million to her Maltese dog, and her family with next to nothing. Her heirs disputed the will and a court ruled the should get nly $ 2 million.

German Poet Heinrich Heine left his entire fortune to his wife, but with a catch. In order to inherit, she had to remarry “because then there will be at least one man to regret my death.”

Janis Joplin updated her will just two days before her death. She set aside $2,500 to pay for a posthumous all-night party for 200 guests at her favorite pub in San Anselmo, California, “so my friends can get blasted after I’m gone.”

“When the plaintiff recovered from the effects of the anesthesia administered by defendants, he awoke to realize that while he was unconscious pink women’s underwear had been placed on his body… When the plaintiff initially presented for his colonoscopy he had not been wearing pink women’s underwear and at no time did the plaintiff voluntarily, knowingly or intentionally place the pink women’s underwear upon himself.”

Walls is seeking damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The News Journal writes that the suit offers no other details and does not offer any possible explanations why someone at the surgical center would put pink underwear on Walls beyond a general intent to embarrass or harass him.

A local Dover attorney, Benjamin A. Schwartz who is not involved with the case was quoted by the Journal and who blogged about the case thought although it was an odd lawsuit, he said Wall’s lawyer was a credible one so the case should be taken seriously. But, he had some critcism

“The question I have is how (as a defendant) do you let this become a lawsuit?” said Schwartz. He noted that the suit was filed on Oct. 10, just before the two-year statute of limitations ran out so one could assume the plaintiff approached the defendants about resolving the matter before a suit was filed.

“How do you not settle this case and let it get out in the community?” Schwartz asked. “This is the type of thing that, if it is true, you want to settle it and get a confidentiality agreement.”

We agree.

Mute swans can cause a variety of problems, including aggressive behavior towards people, destruction of submerged aquatic vegetation, displacement of native wildlife species, degradation of water quality, and potential hazards to aviation. This plan supports actions by DEC to eliminate free-ranging mute swans from New York by 2025, while allowing responsible ownership of these birds in captivity. DEC recently proposed listing mute swan as a “prohibited species” under new Invasive Species regulations, which would prohibit sale, importation, transport, or introduction of this species in New York.

Mute swans are the largest birds in New York, with an average adult weight of 20-25 pounds and a wing span of nearly 7 feet.

Now on to our story…

The widow of a Villa Park, Illinois man has filed a wrongful death suit in the death of her husband who drowned after being attacked by a mute swan at a condo complex near Des Plaines .
For 10 years Anthony Hensley, 37 and a father of two children would regularly show up at the Colony Drive condo complex to tend to a pair of swans which the condo used to keep geese away.

According to a report in the Chicago Tribune

On the morning of April 14, 2012, one of the swans attacked Hensley, causing his kayak to topple, according to witnesses at the time. The bird continued to lunge at him as he struggled to make it to shore before he disappeared under water, authorities said after the attack. He was pronounced dead at a hospital after dive crews scoured the 50-foot-deep pond to find him, authorities added.

Bird experts says that the use of swans to ward off unwanted geese is an effective practice but they are considered an invasive species and can wreak havoc with vegetation and other wildlife. They are also considered ill-tempered and nasty.

The lawsuit claims the Condo failed to warn her husband of the fact that the

“presence of the mute swans on the premises rendered it unreasonably dangerous” and the defendants “knew or should have known that mute swans are strongly territorial with a dangerous propensity to attack.”

They cited the llinois’ Animal Control Act, which says that the owner of an animal that attacks a person in may be held liable for damages.

The centerpiece of the museum is the Corvair, the car that brought Nader to national Attention due to his book Unsafe at Any Speed.

Nader says it’s the only museum of its in the country. We think there might be a reason for that.

Quoted in the Hartford Courant, Nader said

There are 35,000 museums in the country, 62 medical museums, 31 timber-lumber museums sponsored by the industry largely, a museum for major fruits and vegetables, a garlic museum … a museum for every sport, plus every conceivable collectible,” he said. “How could a country dedicated to the rule of law not have a single law museum?

People will leave the museum and find that it connects with their experience. You know, ‘Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe, they were in a crash because GM didn’t recall the car because of the ignition switch’ or ‘We got sick from contaminated food that was not properly refrigerated,’” he said. “It really resonates. It affects people in their daily lives, their anxieties, their desires for justice for injuries or illnesses.

After James’ violent and unwarranted death, his body was transported to Kern Medical Center for an autopsy. While at Kern Medical Center, James’ body was desecrated by another Bakersfield police officer, Defendant Aaron Stringer, who tickled his feet and touched his head while stating “I love playing with dead bodies.”

The Bakersfield Police Department’s abuse of James did not end when they prematurely took his young and promising life. Later that evening, Defendant Officer Aaron Stringer brought his eleventh-week police trainee, Lindy DeGeare, to Kern Medical Center to view James’ corpse under the guise of training purposes. Instead of training DeGeare, Defendant Stringer touched the bottom of James’ feet, saying “tickle tickle” and stating that he “loves playing with dead bodies” while laughing.

Video and eyewitness accounts of the incident that James made no threatening movements and complied with all police instructions.

You can read the full complaint here