GOODWIN INHERITANCE DISPUTE
McEachern: Portsmouth should pay legal costs in Webber estate fight
Editor's note: This Shark believes that the Probate Court of Cook County should pay back for pillaging the estate of Alice R. Gore. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
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By Elizabeth Dinan
edinan@seacoastonline.com
edinan@seacoastonline.com
Posted Nov. 1, 2015 at 2:00 AM
Updated Nov 1, 2015 at 7:24 AM
Geraldine Webber — The cost for attorney Paul McEachern to litigate fired police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin's now-overturned $2 million-plus inheritance should be paid by the city of Portsmouth because the city took no action to defend its own inheritance and the case ended with "substantial public benefit."
That's according to a motion McEachern filed with the Strafford County Probate Court on behalf of his clients Barbara Wardwell, Joanne Peterson, Betsy Lodge and Renee Currie. The four women were beneficiaries of the late Geraldine Webber who, Judge Gary Cassavechia ruled, was unduly influenced by Goodwin before she changed her estate, largely to Goodwin's benefit.
In addition to asking the court to order Portsmouth to pay his attorney fees, McEachern is seeking an order that Goodwin pay part of his legal fees.
"Portsmouth took no position in this case and before trial, its attorney signed a failed settlement agreement that would have deprived Portsmouth of its inheritance," McEachern wrote in his motion.
His four clients, "who had much smaller financial stakes and who would have received every penny of their bequests under the failed settlement agreement," objected to the out-of-court deal "and advocated in the public's interests when Portsmouth declined to do so," McEachern argues.
In 2014, retired judge John Maher presided over a private meeting that led to the proposed out-of-court settlement, which would have paid Goodwin $425,000 from Webber's estate and kept the case out of court. The proposed settlement also included paying the Portsmouth police and fire departments, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Shriners Hospital for Children, 25 percent each after Goodwin and the bills were paid.
Webber's prior will did not include Goodwin and left 25 percent each to the police and fire departments and the hospitals.
The settlement was not endorsed by the Police Commission, but if it had been, "the public would have been deprived of the full value of its bequests and it would not have had a public trial to air serious concerns about one police officer's actions and the complacency of the Portsmouth Police Department's command staff," McEachern argues in his motion.
Cassavechia set aside Webber's 2012 will and trust and has yet to rule on whether her prior will, endorsed in 2009, will stand. The judge was also critical of Goodwin's supervising officers and since then Goodwin has been fired and Chief Stephen DuBois, ex-deputy chief Corey MacDonald and Capt. Mike Schwartz announced their retirements.
In Webber's 2009 will, the city’s police and fire Departments were each designated as one-quarter beneficiaries to be used for "safety equipment." A final accounting of Webber's estate shows a balance of $1.8 million, which would make the current value of the police and fire inheritances about $450,000 each. Legal fees and costs to take the case to court are currently being litigated.
McEachern contends that during an extended dispute over Webber's estate, including a ten-day hearing, the city took no position, made no claims or counter-claims, presented no evidence and made no arguments. Conversely, he argues, his clients "litigated in the public's interest" by objecting to the out-of-court deal and taking the case to court.
He wrote that his clients' case resulted in two public benefits, "particularly to the city of Portsmouth." One was the inheritance of a combined half of Webber's large estate and the other was a court process that "enabled the public to identify official misconduct by the police, resulting in a process of reform that still continues."
"The Wardwell petitioners ensured a complete litigation, which resulted in significant benefits to the public, in the form of financial benefit and changes in the police department to protect the elderly from undue influence exerted by police officers," according to McEachern's motion. "Even when the Wardwell petitioners successfully ensured a full public trial, the City of Portsmouth through its attorney refused to take any meaningful action."
Earlier this month, McEachern successfully made the same argument in a case that resulted in public access to Rye's Little Harbor Beach. He argued that his client, Robert Jesurum, took the case to court as a matter of public benefit. Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Marguerite Wageling agreed and ordered that the defendant, Bill Binnie, pay Jesurum's legal fees.
McEachern's motion was made public after City Hall was closed on Friday.
He is also now seeking a court order that his legal fees, the business costs associated with the Webber case, be paid by the estate and Goodwin. Because Cassavechia found Webber's final will and trust "were the product of Aaron Goodwin's undue influence, it is appropriate that Aaron Goodwin be held liable for taxable costs," his motion states.
"As the petitioners Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Shriner's Hospital for Children (the hospitals) are remainder beneficiaries of the estate, any costs paid by the estate will reduce the hospital's bequest," McEachern wrote. "Therefore it is both equitable and reasonable that the court hold Aaron Goodwin jointly and severally liable with the estate for all costs."
Goodwin has objected through attorney Charles Doleac stating that the probate case was filed solely against Webber's estate and not against him. He also disputes that costs for transcripts should not be allowed unless they were used for the testimony of a witness not available for trial and that was not the case in the Webber matter. Goodwin argues that many of the cited transcript costs were for depositions of parties not called to trial and that other costs – including for courier service, accident reports, deeds, fees and bank records – are not allowed under court rules.
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