Janna Dutton Lawsuit

I'm in a defamation lawsuit with this attorney, Devon Bank, Richard Block, Sally Griffin and Josh Mitzen.  They say Ludwig is in it too but they're just saying that to bill his estate.

Anyway, I'm finally looking at the lawsuit because anyone sues for defamation wants publicity and I can't figure out why they want it so badly but I do know why I want it.  So, that's my new mission - informing Law Schools and other legal blogs.

In any event, Janna keeps filing this document on Ludwig's property, how she gave the rights away to the trustees at Devon Bank.  The only reason I can think of that she would continue to bring this is up is that the trustees threw out Ludwig's priceless family heirlooms - his photographs, old memorabilia, correspondence between his mother, sisters in Europe, his family, old and rare Polish Book collection, some in German - they threw out things that were priceless to Ludwig and had he known they would do that, he wouldn't have signed the document.  Why would anyone give their cherished possessions to two bank trustees to toss in the trash?!

Janna didn't explain to Ludwig that she considered it garbage.  So, before you hire this woman to write your will, make a list of everything.  Inventory your entire house and designate it to someone because she'll toss it.

(One more thing, no.  It's not the "Sally Griffin Lawsuit" - it's not Griffin v. Goldmann.  Please stop asking.)

Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau

Link is here.  If you'd like to submit a complaint, it's here.  I just heard about this organization yesterday.  It's relatively new, set up by Obama last year.

The central mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.


EDUCATE
An informed consumer is the first line of defense against abusive practices.

ENFORCE
Like a neighborhood cop on the beat, the CFPB supervises banks, credit unions, and other financial companies, and we will enforce Federal consumer financial laws.

STUDY
The consumer bureau gathers and analyzes available information to better understand consumers, financial services providers, and consumer financial markets.
Above all, this means ensuring that consumers get the information they need to make the financial decisions they believe are best for themselves and their families—that prices are clear up front, that risks are visible, and that nothing is buried in fine print. In a market that works, consumers should be able to make direct comparisons among products and no provider should be able to build, or feel pressure to build, a business model around unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices.

CORE FUNCTIONS
The consumer bureau is working to give consumers the information they need to understand the terms of their agreements with financial companies. We are working to make regulations and guidance as clear and streamlined as possible so providers of consumer financial products and services can follow the rules on their own.

Congress established the CFPB to protect consumers by carrying out Federal consumer financial laws. Among other things, we:

• Conduct rule-making, supervision, and enforcement for Federal consumer financial protection laws
• Restrict unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices
• Take consumer complaints
• Promote financial education
• Research consumer behavior
• Monitor financial markets for new risks to consumers
• Enforce laws that outlaw discrimination and other unfair treatment in consumer finance

If anyone has any interaction with this organization, could you please contact me?

In Rosa Parks case, lawyer says judge, 2 others looted icon's estate

In a highly unusual move, a lawyer is suing a Wayne County probate judge and two court-appointed lawyers, accusing them of looting the estate of the late civil rights icon Rosa Parks.


Attorney Stephen G. Cohen said in court papers that Judge Freddie Burton Jr. conspired with probate lawyers John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr., enabling the pair to rack up more than $507,000 in mostly unnecessary legal fees that drained Parks’ estate of its cash, leaving it $88,000 in debt.

Cohen also said Burton, through secret hearings and improper rulings, allowed the pair to concoct a bogus breach of confidentiality dispute. Cohen said Burton used the dispute to strip Elaine Steele and the Rosa and Raymond Parks institute that she created with Parks of their share of Parks’ property, said to be worth up to $8 million.


“Chase and Jefferson, together with Judge Burton, illegally, maliciously and wrongfully conspired… for the illegal purpose of raiding Mrs. Parks’ estate of its value,” Cohen said in a 38-page probate petition.

He requested a jury trial in probate court and asked Burton to remove himself from presiding over Parks’ estate.

Burton, Chase and Jefferson declined Wednesday to comment on the dispute, the latest twist in a long-running battle that began when Parks’ nieces and nephews challenged the validity of her trust after her death in 2005.

Probate experts predicted Cohen’s move would fail.

“This is out there — this is really, really out there,” said Andrew Mayoras, a Troy probate lawyer and co-author of “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!”

“Disagreeing with and challenging rulings of a judge is one thing; but suing a judge and the attorneys he appointed for their actions is another matter altogether,” Mayoras said, adding that Burton, Chase and Jefferson are highly respected.

Patricia Patterson-Courie, a Clinton Township probate lawyer who taught probate law at the University of Detroit Mercy, agreed.

“This is a difficult allegation to prove and it would be very difficult to produce evidence of a conspiracy,” Patterson said. She said Cohen may simply be trying to force Burton to remove himself from Parks’ estate.

But Larry Dubin, a University of Detroit Mercy law professor, said: “Perhaps judge Burton will feel increasing pressure to recuse himself now that he is being placed in a defensive position.”

Cohen said he also wants Burton, Chase and Jefferson to restore all of the money to the estate.

If Burton refuses to recuse himself, Cohen could appeal the decision to Chief Wayne County Probate Judge Milton Mack Jr., to Wayne County Circuit Court and then to state appellate courts.

Court rules make it difficult for lawyers to disqualify judges to discourage forum shopping.

A hearing on Cohen’s requests is set for next Tuesday.

This is the second time in a month that Cohen has accused Chase of misconduct in an estate battle. In April, Cohen file court papers accusing a Detroit law firm and Chase of insinuating themselves into the estate of Don Barden, the late casino mogul. Cohen said Chase and the firm tried to manipulate probate proceedings to rake in excessive fees and got a judge to seal the court file to keep Barden’s siblings in the dark.

Many of Cohen’s allegations were laid out in a series of Free Press stories that began last summer.

Parks became a civil rights hero by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus in 1955. She and her husband eventually moved to Detroit.

Parks, who had no children, set up an estate plan to give the bulk of her personal and intellectual property to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development and Steele, her longtime assistant and caregiver. Parks’ estate plan called for Steele and retired 36th District Court Judge Adam Shakoor to handle the estate.

But that didn’t happen.

After Parks’ 13 nieces and nephews contested her estate plan, Burton appointed Chase and Jefferson to take charge.

Steele, the institute and the relatives settled their differences in a confidential agreement that gave the relatives 20% of Parks’ property and royalties from licensing her name. The rest went to the institute and Steele.

Although the agreement called for Burton to put Steele and Shakoor back in charge of the estate, Cohen said Burton refused, allowing Chase and Jefferson to continue to run up huge legal bills.

After most of the estate’s cash was gone, Cohen said, the lawyers accused Cohen of disclosing part of the confidential agreement. That prompted Burton to strip Steele and the Institute of their share. He indicated he planned to give their stake to a charity of his choosing.

Guernsey’s Auctioneers of New York City is trying to sell Parks’ belogings to an institution that can put them on public display.

Chase and Jefferson have denied any wrongdoing and the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the fees were proper and that they alone were responsible for recognizing the value of Parks’ possessions.

Last summer, Cohen asked the Michigan Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling.

In December and again in January, the high court ordered Burton to put Steele and Shakoor back in charge of the estate.

Although Burton reinstated Steele and Shakoor, Cohen said that the judge has refused to give them control over Parks’ property, and has allowed Chase and Jefferson to ding the estate for an additional $120,000 in legal fees.

Contact David Ashenfelter: dashenfelter@freepress.com

FBI - Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing Home Abuse

Owner Cheats Government and Neglects Residents
Not enough food. Little air conditioning or heat. Roofs leaking to the point that barrels and plastic sheets were used to catch rain water. Trash that piled up in dumpsters. Flies and rodents everywhere, along with rampant mold and mildew.

These were just some of the horrible conditions that elderly residents of three Georgia nursing homes lived under for several years.

The primary culprit: the owner of these homes who, despite having received more than $32.9 million in payments from Medicare and Medicaid for residents’ care, elected to pocket much of the money instead.

But he didn’t get away with it. Earlier this month, George Dayln Houser was convicted in Atlanta of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. Houser’s accomplice and wife, Rhonda Washington Houser, pled guilty last December.


To receive Medicare and Medicaid payments, Houser agreed to provide his residents with a safe and clean physical environment, nutritional meals, medical care, and other assistance. But as complaints began to roll in from residents, family members, nursing home staffers, and vendors hired to provide services, it became clear he had no intention of doing so.

These complaints led to an investigation by the FBI’s Atlanta office—in concert with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation. Evidence gathered by investigators and later introduced at trial showed that the services Houser provided to residents were so deficient that the judge determined them “worthless.” It was a precedent-setting case…the first time ever a defendant was federally convicted at trial for submitting payment claims for worthless services.


There were other deficiencies in the homes as well, including:

Inadequate staffing: Houser failed to maintain a nursing staff sufficient to take proper care of the residents. Staffing shortages started plaguing the homes after Houser began writing bad checks to his employees, causing many to resign. He also withheld health insurance premiums from his employees but let insurance lapse for non-payment, leaving many with large unpaid medical bills.

Failure to pay vendors: Houser didn’t pay food suppliers or providers of pharmacy and clinical laboratory services, medical waste disposal, trash disposal, and nursing supplies. Kind-hearted employees often used their own money to buy milk, bread, and other groceries so residents would not starve. They also brought in their own nursing and cleaning supplies and washed residents’ laundry in commercial laundromats or even in their own homes.


And while his residents and his employees were suffering, what were Houser and his wife doing? Spending their ill-gotten Medicare and Medicaid payments on hotel real estate investments, new homes, vacations, luxury cars, new furniture, and nannies for their child. Houser even gave money to an ex-wife…paying her a nursing home salary (even though she never worked there) and buying her a million-dollar home in Atlanta.

Said Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Brian Lamkin, “The level of greed and lack of compassion for others that was seen in this case reflect the very reason why the FBI, in working with its many and varied law enforcement partners, dedicates vast investigative resources to combating health care fraud.”

And in this case, we were especially happy to see that all three nursing homes were eventually shut down by the state, and residents moved into better living quarters to get the care and compassion they deserve.

Nursing Home Fraud

When a nursing home bills Medicare and Medicaid for services that aren’t provided or that fail to measure up to basic medical standards, that’s not only exploitation, it’s fraud.

Here are some signs that could point to fraudulent billing by nursing homes:

- Residents living in unsanitary, unsafe environments.

- Residents looking malnourished and/or dehydrated.

- Ghost-billing for patients who don’t exist or who have died.

- Offers of free items or services to a resident in exchange for a Medicare or Medicaid number.

- Upcoding (putting residents in ultra-high billing categories reserved only for those needing highly specialized care and rehabilitation).

- Using inferior medicine or medical equipment for residents while billing for premium services.

- Billing for services and/or equipment not provided.

If you are a nursing home employee or a family member of a nursing home resident and suspect that your facility is engaging in Medicare or Medicaid fraud, submit a tip to the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General or the FBI.

A Prosecutor Becomes a Champion for the Elderly

By Elizabeth Olson of the New York Times.

MARIE-THERESE CONNOLLY is using the prosecutorial skill she honed fighting nursing home fraud to add dimensions to the public’s awareness of the widespread problem of elder abuse, including highlighting the costs to society of financial, physical and psychological mistreatment of older adults.

“Elder abuse is ubiquitous,” Ms. Connolly, 54, a former Justice Department prosecutor, said. “But we are not connecting the dots and realizing that the economic costs are high. Few people realize the huge implications for Medicare, Medicaid and family programs.”

She has been working — writing federal legislation, testifying and prosecuting cases — for years, but a grant last fall from the MacArthur Foundation recognized her efforts in the area and gave her the financial freedom to reframe the issue on her own terms.

Despite the occasional highly publicized case like the one involving the actor Mickey Rooney, who told Congress he had been mistreated by relatives, or the conviction of the heiress Brooke Astor’s son on charges of defrauding her and stealing millions of dollars from her, the biggest challenge is that aging is something that everyone wants to ignore, Ms. Connolly said.

“We need to talk about this,” she said.

She decided to write a book, but not about the many examples of how older people are exploited or mistreated.

“The engine of the book is going to be the people on the ground who are doing amazing things to help older people who are suffering from all these different kinds of abuses,” Ms. Connolly said of the book, which she said would be published in spring 2013. With no coordinated national approach, “the social workers and others who are trying to help are forced to invent the wheel over and over,” she said.

Protecting the elderly is not a top national concern, she said, although 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, and large numbers of baby boomers are in or approaching their 60s, a period when they become more vulnerable.

Ms. Connolly, an energetic mother of three, did not set out to become a champion of rights for the elderly. As a newly minted lawyer out of Northeastern University School of Law, an early assignment was prosecuting civil fraud cases at the Justice Department.

Several years later, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional watchdog agency, uncovered widespread nursing home abuses. That prompted the Justice Department to set up the Elder Justice and Nursing Home Initiative to, among other things, pursue fraud against older adults. She was named to lead it in 1999.

She left the post in 2007, becoming a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington research organization, and founding the nonprofit group Life Long Justice to help detect abuse of the elderly and find solutions. In 2010, Congress passed the first federal legislation, the Elder Justice Act, which she helped write, to address such abuse and exploitation.

Despite the law and efforts to shed light on the problem, the toll on victims remains vast and grim, she said.

Just making sure that the people who come into contact with older adults, including doctors and social workers, are trained to distinguish between accidental bruises, which are common among older adults, and marks that are inflicted by someone else would be an important step, she said.

Ms. Connolly also wants people to understand the economic toll of abuse, noting that studies show that abused elderly people “are more likely to be admitted to a nursing home, for example, and far more likely to suffer from increased mortality and morbidity.”

When financial, physical or other abuse means that an older person cannot live independently, taxpayers pick up the bill for costly acute, intensive or long-term care via Medicare or Medicaid, she said.

Financial exploitation alone costs victims $2.9 billion annually, according to a 2011 MetLife Mature Market Institute study. Ms. Connolly said that the actual cost of abuse could be much greater, but no comprehensive study had been done.

A major drawback to public awareness, she said, is the lack of research, especially in the areas of intervention and prevention. It is difficult to pinpoint the precise number of cases of mistreatment and abuse of older people, she said, because abuse takes many forms, can be hard to detect and can occur at home or in nursing homes and other institutions.

Citing surveys and studies over the last decade, Ms. Connolly estimated that several million older Americans suffered abuse each year. But she said, “It’s very hard to put a finger on the prevalence.”

To arrive at more precise figures, she is working with some other specialists on the elderly to research the various aspects of abuse and to find financing to support the effort.

Her no-strings $500,000 MacArthur award helps make up for the fact that she has not drawn a salary since she left her federal job — something her family has taken in stride although her older two children are in college. Her husband, Daniel Kohrman, is a lawyer with the AARP Foundation and works on issues involving older adults as well.

But Ms. Connolly says she knows focusing public attention on abuse of the elderly is not going to be easy.

“Despite the tide of aging baby boomers, people are still far more aware of child abuse and domestic violence than they are of what happens to an older neighbor or relative,” she said. “Elder abuse is still a national blind spot.”

Link to story.

Conservatorship is meant to protect, but in Tennessee, it sometimes destroys

Just two years ago, 80-year-old Jewell Tinnon was living comfortably in the Edgehill house she and her late husband had bought and paid for years earlier.


Tucked away in the home on a cul-de-sac off 13th Avenue South were a life’s worth of possessions, her prized Sunday church clothes and her diamond rings. Parked outside was her 1995 low-mileage Pontiac.

But all that was before a petition was filed, without her knowledge, in Davidson County Probate Court to protect and conserve her life, health and assets.

Today, Tinnon, now 82, lives in a one-bedroom public housing unit watching a television donated by a friend. There is little furniture. Her house, her car, her jewelry and all her possessions are gone, sold off at auction. A large chunk of the proceeds — $36,000 in fees and expenses — was used to pay the lawyers who handled the process.

Tinnon’s plight, a Tennessean review has shown, is not unique. For Tinnon and others, records show, conservatorship, a court process intended to protect those judged no longer able to care for themselves, has proved to be a path in the opposite direction.

Stripped of the right to make even the most basic decisions about their life, health or finances, some of those placed in conservatorship have watched their life’s savings — everything from their homes to their clothes — swallowed up by legal and other fees.

The situation has drawn the attention of national elderly and legal organizations fighting guardianship and conservatorship abuse and sparked an ongoing effort to change states’ laws to provide additional safeguards.

Some who claim their conservatorships were mishandled are fighting back.

After a woman who was trying to get out of a conservatorship complained about how her case was handled, the Nashville judge who handles such cases instituted new procedures in his courtroom.

And Tinnon? After obtaining additional medical exams to prove her mental capacity, she has filed a lawsuit seeking $1.6 million in damages from her former attorney and the organization that had all her possessions auctioned off.

The story of her 14 months under court control offers a window into the power of the court and its processes that can supplant an individual’s wishes. And how swiftly a life can be turned upside down as a result.

Grandsons filed petition

Tinnon came to Nashville some 60 years ago and was a cook for transportation companies for much of her working life. She and her husband bought their three-bedroom home in the 1980s, eventually owning it outright. Her husband, an Army veteran, and her only son both passed away years ago. She has two grandsons and a sister living in Georgia.

For Tinnon, the process that would eventually cause her to lose her home and possessions began in late August 2010 when the two adult grandsons filed an emergency petition in the 7th Circuit Probate Court asking Judge David “Randy” Kennedy to place their grandmother in a conservatorship.

The seven-page petition filed by the brothers Kim and Terry Patrick warned that Tinnon’s monthly checks and bank statements were “being removed” from her mailbox by third parties.

Still worse, the petition warned, Tinnon had recently been admitted to a local hospital “with hallucinogenic complaints of seeing bugs and other insects crawling around her.”

The petition included no medical records or doctor’s certification of her condition, although by then she had been transferred to a nursing home for rehabilitation related to weakness in her legs.

According to the two grandchildren, they learned Tinnon was incapable of handling her own affairs when an insurance agent called to inform them that their grandmother had failed to pay her insurance premiums “and this was very uncharacteristic.”

Kennedy, the sole judge to regularly preside over such cases in Davidson County, approved the emergency petition on Aug. 24, the same day it was filed, and appointed an attorney to investigate the matter and report back to him before a Sept. 22 hearing. The two grandsons were appointed temporary conservators authorized “to make all reasonable and necessary decisions on behalf of the ward (Tinnon).”

Tinnon later said that her grandsons had little to do with her in recent years until they filed the petition. One of the brothers contended, however, that he was trying to look after his grandmother, and she was being difficult. The Tennessean was unable to reach the other brother.

On Sept. 9, 2010, 16 days after the original petition, Tinnon was first informed of the fact that she had been placed under conservatorship, she said.

Tinnon testifies

Two days before the scheduled hearing and a week after Tinnon was first informed of the conservatorship, Nashville attorney Karl Warden filed a motion with the court asking that he be appointed as the attorney to represent Tinnon. Kennedy approved that request.

Warden told the court that he became aware of Tinnon’s case when he was contacted by staffers at the nursing home where she was a patient. Ed Hogan, administrator at Donelson Place Care and Rehabilitation Center, where Tinnon was then a resident, said privacy laws barred him from discussing matters involving patients.

Warden reported to the court that Tinnon told him “she was perfectly capable of making her own decisions and made it clear she was afraid” of the grandchildren already appointed to protect her interests. He also said Tinnon asked him to represent her.

Tinnon’s current attorney Michael G. Hoskins said, however, that Tinnon did not request Warden to come to the nursing home and that he showed up there unannounced.

Warden did not respond to multiple phone messages requesting comment. But a local television station, WSMV Channel 4, quoted Warden late last year as saying that he felt sorry for Tinnon.

On Nov. 15, 2010, nearly three months after the original petition, Warden took Tinnon to Dr. Stephen D’Amico for a medical examination. D’Amico signed a report stating that he believed Tinnon was in need of a conservator, records show.

Though the actual report has been sealed, other court documents cite its conclusion that Tinnon suffered from “memory loss consistent with Alzheimer’s type dementia” and “needs care 24/7.”

Warden told the court that Tinnon objected to a conservatorship, but later said Tinnon asked that, if the judge appointed a conservator, it be her niece or the Greater Nashville Regional Council.

After listening to Tinnon testify that she did not want a conservatorship or her grandchildren to be her conservators, the judge on Dec. 2, 2010, moved ahead and appointed the Greater Nashville Regional Council. In doing this, he removed the two grandsons, acknowledging that they had “an adversarial relationship” with their grandmother.

'Don't sell my stuff'

The Greater Nashville Regional Council is a large agency whose board is composed of dozens of area public officials and which is funded with state, local and federal money. It generally serves as a clearinghouse for regional planning and other efforts related to growth and economic development in 13 counties, including Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, Stewart, Williamson, Wilson and Montgomery.

One of its arms, the Area Agency on Aging and Disability, provides programs and services for the elderly, including a guardianship program.

The program handles 50 to 60 cases at any given time, which are assigned by judges throughout the 13 counties, said Sam Edwards, executive director of the council.

In a motion on March 18, 2011, the council stated that a sale of Tinnon’s home and possessions was in the best interest of the estate. Tinnon, who had been receiving monthly Social Security checks and veteran’s benefits related to her husband, did owe some money. Her earlier nursing home care had cost up to $1,000 a month.

But other debt also had accumulated, primarily lawyer fees for the conservatorship and insurance and tax bills for her residence.

Edwards declined to talk about the Tinnon case because it’s in litigation. But the Greater Nashville Regional Council has said in court filings that it has acted appropriately and noted that its actions were approved by the judge.

That approval came on April 1, 2011, when Kennedy authorized the auction and sell-off of Tinnon’s possessions, including her house, despite her pleading otherwise.

“They didn’t have to do that,” Tinnon said. “I even told Judge Kennedy in court. I said, ‘Don’t sell my home. Don’t sell my stuff. I worked hard for it.’ ”

But sell they did.

All possessions sold

Tinnon’s car and a life’s worth of possessions were sold for a little over $2,600. Her house, then assessed for $150,200, was auctioned off for $83,000. It is now back on the market for $144,500.

An inventory filed with the court shows items sold ranged from boxes of unidentified goods sold for $4 to a sewing machine sold for $52.50 to her 1995 Pontiac sold for $2,050.

Tinnon said every stitch of her clothes and four diamond rings were among the items sold off.

Kim Patrick, one of the grandsons who filed the original petition, said in an interview with The Tennessean that his intention was to protect his grandmother and her assets but that disagreements between him and his grandmother overcame those efforts.

Asked what he thought of the final outcome, Patrick said emphatically, “They done her wrong.”

Tinnon’s lawsuit accuses Warden, her former lawyer, of agreeing “in direct contravention to his client’s wishes, to have the Greater Nashville Regional Council appointed as Tinnon’s conservator.”

And it alleges the council “breached its fiduciary duty when it undersold Tinnon’s real estate and personal assets. As a direct result … Tinnon is now living in public housing,” the complaint states.

The council “could have saved Tinnon’s home and assets by allowing her to move back into her home under the care of her niece,” the suit charges.

“She told them that they might as well shoot her dead if they took her house away,” said her lawyer Hoskins. “They did it anyway.”

Hoskins contends records of the conservator-ship show that Warden eventually billed Tinnon’s estate for services he provided days before he had even met her.

States take closer look at laws

Some states are taking a closer look at the laws regarding conservatorship.

Ed Boyer, a Florida attorney and head of the National Academy of Elder Care Attorneys, said that several states have shifted conservancy standards to maximize the autonomy of those being placed in a conservatorship and to reduce or eliminate reliance on a simple medical assessment.

As a result, he said, conservatorships in those states have imposed limits on the powers granted to guardians and thus avoid an “all-or-nothing approach.”

“There is a trend toward a greater recognition of a person’s autonomy,” he said.

Read the rest of the story here.
Contact Walter F. Roche Jr. at 615-259-8086 or wroche@tennessean.com.

Curiosity Saved The Cat

Judge Blocks Execution Of Feline
You’ve heard curiosity killed the cat. In this case, curiosity actually saved one.

As CBS 2′s Jim Williams reports, Boots was about to be put down, but an alert bank official worked to block the execution, going against the wishes of Boots’ late owner.

Boots is a friendly cat and doesn’t at all mind being held by a stranger.

“She’s lovable, playful. Though she’s 11 years old, she doesn’t act like it,” said Sandra Buturusis, the cat’s neighbor in the western suburbs.

 It’s hard to believe someone wanted this perfectly healthy cat euthanized. Even harder to believe it was Boots’ owner, Georgia Lee Dvorak.

“She had a really big heart,” Buturusis. “She loved animals.”

In fact, Dvorak so loved animals, that when she died last December she left all of her $1.3 million estate to animal charities. So why put in her will that she wanted her beloved Boots euthanized, especially after she rescued the cat from an abusive home?

“She was so afraid that if something happened to her that the cat would not be taken care of and she’d go to another abusive home,” Buturusis said.

The executor of the will, Fifth Third Bank, went to court, to ask a judge to actually block Ms. Dvorak’s request.

“We brought a petition asking that the language be set aside or stricken,” said bank senior president Jeffrey Schmidt. “We didn’t want to euthanize this healthy, living animal.”

The judge agreed, and Wednesday, Fifth Third arranged for Boots to be taken to a loving home with a history of caring for cats.

“I guess you could say this time curiosity saved the cat,” said Schmidt. “We’re very happy for that.”

Bank officials also donated cat supplies and food to Boots’ new home, a cage-free sanctuary in Andersonville.

Schmidt recommends pet owners set up a separate trust for their care.

Dvorak had no family members and her neighbors are allergic to cats.