How does $100,000 disintegrate under a court's watch?
Here's how:
On Dec. 3, 2007, Wilbur Miller, then 78, suffered head trauma and bruises over his body when a driver struck him crossing the street at 40th and Cuming. Miller was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where he spent the next two weeks.
Doctors described him as confused and possibly suffering from dementia. A hospital social worker contacted Dinah Turrentine-Sims to serve as Miller's guardian.
Thus began the court's involvement in Miller's life. Turrentine-Sims was to oversee Miller's care and report to a judge.
In January 2008, Turrentine-Sims turned to attorneys John Lynch and Kelly Henry Turner to clean up court filings for eight of her wards, including Miller.
In May 2008, Turrentine-Sims contacted Lynch and Turner again. Creighton wanted her to sign over to the hospital a $100,000 check sent by the insurance company of the driver who hit Miller, the lawyers said.
The attorneys advised against signing over the check. Instead, they had Turrentine-Sims set up a conservatorship, essentially a court-supervised account. That in place, the judge, lawyers and Turrentine-Sims had a duty: to conserve any money Miller might receive.
The attorneys had a choice: charge Miller an hourly rate or a contingency fee for their work.
Lynch and Turner signed a contingency fee contract in which Turrentine-Sims agreed to pay them “a sum equal to 33.3 percent from whatever amount may be recovered.”
Common in personal injury cases, one-third contingency fees typically are used when there is a question of whether an attorney will be able to recover money.
In this case, the insurance company had shown a willingness to pay $100,000, the upper limit of the driver's insurance. However, Lynch said, he and Turner had to work hard and work smart to ensure that the hospital didn't receive all the money without Miller getting his due.
Lynch said he and Turner demanded that the hospital negotiate with doctors and with Medicare to reduce the bills. The attorneys also dealt with Medicare officials on requests for reimbursement.
In time, Lynch said, they succeeded in reducing Miller's hospital bills to less than $9,000 and in redirecting the insurance payout to Miller. Without their work, Lynch said, “Wilbur Miller would have gotten zero.”
Creighton University Medical Center officials did not respond to requests for comments about the case.
Lynch and Turner said they didn't have an estimate of how many hours they worked on Miller's case.
The judge didn't require one. Judge Stephen Swartz approved the $100,000 settlement and authorized taking out the $33,333 contingency fee for the lawyers.
Months later, Turrentine-Sims stopped tending to her wards. The judge ordered a review of her bank accounts, which showed numerous ATM withdrawals at a casino.
Swartz eventually found that $62,700 of Miller's settlement money had gone to Turrentine-Sims “for her own use.”
Before the money went missing, the judge could have ensured that Miller's settlement was secure by requiring Turrentine-Sims to post a larger bond, essentially insurance for Miller's estate. But Swartz set Turrentine-Sims' bond at just $30,000 — 30 percent of the settlement.
In April, the judge recouped that amount from the bond firm. That left Miller with $30,000 and the attorneys with $33,333.
Asked if he had considered paying back any of his contingency fee, Lynch responded: “Is anybody going to pay us for all the other (Turrentine-Sims) cases we cleaned up?”
“We were asked to straighten out eight cases where something was wrong, and there was no money in any of those,” Lynch said.
“I didn't get into this line of work to get the house on the hill. You do whatever you can to help people. I felt it was our duty to get some money for Wilbur Miller. It's awful that Dinah (allegedly) didn't keep it for Mr. Miller, but we did our best.”
Turner agreed.
“More often than not, what you see is a (personal injury) firm handling that, getting their cut and running with no regard to the rest of the (ward's) case,” she said. “That's not the way John and I do things.”
Judges praised the work and ethics of Lynch and Turner.
For 15 years, Lynch has helped run the volunteer service he helped create, Metropolitan Area Volunteer Guardians and Conservators. Lynch, who has done legal work for guardians and conservators for 30 years, estimates that he donates more than 100 hours a year working for indigent clients.
“John Lynch was one of the few lawyers I could always count on,” said retired Douglas County Judge Jane Prochaska, a judge for 21 years. “He is extremely knowledgeable, competent and ethical. You just know that he will do what is right, even if it means more work for him with no pay.”
Turrentine-Sims, 59, is awaiting trial in Douglas County District Court in connection with more than $250,000 missing from three of her other wards. Prosecutors are considering filing additional charges over Miller's case.
Miller, now 80, lives at a north Omaha assisted-living facility. Until the judge seized Turrentine-Sims' $30,000 bond, taxpayers were funding portions of his $1,000-a-month rent through Medicaid.
One of his caretakers lamented that Miller “would have been set for life” with the $100,000.
In the brief time he had the settlement, the caretaker said, people asked how he was going to spend it. He shrugged. He resisted their suggestions that he buy clothes or a TV.
The reason: He didn't want to splurge on himself.
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