Metro Settles Conservatorship Claim

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Metro Nashville has agreed to pay $10,000 to settle a suit filed in behalf of a ward whose assets were depleted by $157,850 thanks to a court appointed conservator now serving an 18 year jail sentence.
The suit in behalf of Donald E. Griggs charged that if the Metro Probate Clerk's Office had done its job of monitoring Griggs' conservatorship, John E. Clemmons would not have been able to steal the $157,850.
Clemmons had failed to file required annual reports, but the clerk took no action. March 2012 was the date when the first missed annual report was due.
Clemmons, 69, entered guilty pleas to charges that he stole over $1 million from estates and conservatorships in Davidson and Rutherford counties.
Paul Gontarek, who was appointed to replace Clemmons as Griggs conservatorship said that the settlement was the best course based on recent rulings in the case.
"Given the earlier court ruling, it did not make financial sense to pursue the claim against Metro," Gontarek said when asked about the settlement.
In agreeing to the settlement, Metro attorneys wrote that "the payment is not an expression or implied admission of responsibility on the part of Metro government and that the Metro government specifically denies all such claims for damages against it."
 Senior Judge Ben H. Cantrell ruled that the probate clerk could be held liable for failing to monitor Griggs case but he also concluded that Griggs could only recover amounts stolen by Clemmons after March of 2012.
"Any losses that occurred prior to that date cannot be attributed to the fault of the clerk's office," Cantrell wrote. 
Cantrell also ruled against another claim filed by Gontarek in behalf of another ward on different grounds. In the case of William Link, Cantrell concluded that a statute of limitations barred any recovery.
Clemmons admitted to stealing some $500,000 of Link's assets. Clemmons had served as both a conservator and estate administrator for Link and his disabled daughter.
Gontarek is appealing the Link ruling.
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Fred Thompson's Widow Ordered to Provide Records

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The widow of the late U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson has been ordered to turn over records showing any asset transfers or changes in beneficiaries in the months preceding his death in late 2015.
In a four-page order issued this week, Davidson Probate Judge David "Randy" Kennedy ordered Jeri Thompson to provide the records to the late actor's two oldest children, Fred D Thompson and Daniel Thompson by Feb. 22.
Thompson's two older sons have charged that Jeri Thompson was attempting to change her husband's estate plan at a time when he was no longer legally competent to approve any changes.
The will actually filed in Thompson's estate was dated over a decade before his Nov. 1, 2015 death and did not mention the two children born after his marriage to Jeri.
Kennedy's order followed a Jan. 23 hearing on the issue.
The order requires Jeri Thompson to provide copies of deeds prepared by ta Nashville law firm in October of 2015 regarding property in Florida.
The order also applies to any change in beneficiaries on life insurance policies between July 2015 and October 2015.
The same information must be turned over regarding Thompson's pension from the Screen Actor Guild.
Under the order information on all accounts and assets must also be provided, though the order specifically excludes account numbers.
The dispute arose after a Nashville law firm, Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis submitted a claim against Thompson's estate for $14,450. The filing included detailed information on efforts to the amend the retired actor's estate plans.
The two sons, children of Thompson's first marriage, then filed their claims.
Jeri Thompson responded by stating that the only change was in the contingent beneficiary on a life insurance policy. And, she said, that change proved inconsequential because she was the primary beneficiary and had already collected on the policy.
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