Unwanted Conservatorship Dissolved

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A woman placed in a court ordered conservatorship over her strong protests six months ago has finally succeeded in getting the order dissolved by the same judge who originally approved it.
In a three-page order issued this week in Davidson Probate Court in Nashville Tenn. Judge David "Randy" Kennedy dissolved the conservatorship of Reba Sherrill.
Sherrill said that at a recent hearing in her case, Kennedy told her he never wanted to see her in his courtroom again.
Sherrill, who doesn't even live in Davidson County, was placed in the conservatorship in August under a recently approved addition to the state conservatorship law affecting patients in medical facilities.  The provision allows hospitals to petition the court to appoint a temporary conservator to approve the patient's release or transfer.
Sherrill was a patient at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center when the petition was filed.
Lawyers for the hospital filed a petition in August of last year contending that she no longer needed acute hospital care but lacked the mental capacity to approve a transfer to an appropriate health care facility. She had originally been admitted for medical conditions.
Kennedy approved the petition and named one lawyer to act as Sherrill's temporary conservator with the power to transfer her to another facility and another lawyer to act as a guardian ad litem or fact finder.
Soon the bills began to pile up from the lawyers and the nursing home where Sherrill was placed over her continued protests. Kennedy also converted her conservatorship from temporary to permanent and ordered that the legal and other bills be paid from her assets.
Sherrill did succeed in getting her original conservator replaced with her brother but the conservatorship remained in place. Meanwhile Kennedy allowed Vanderbilt, the party that initiated the action, to exit the case.
Recently Sherrill filed motions to have the conservatorship dissolved or for her case to be transferred to Sumner County, where she owns a home.
It was that motion that prompted Kennedy to finally dissolve the conservatorship that she contends was never needed.
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