Larry and Luke Graham are locked in a bitter legal dispute over custody of their mother, Betty Pat Graham. Larry initially appeared to have the upper hand after Ms. Graham signed a power of attorney naming him as her agent for both financial and health care decisions. After Luke filed a guardianship proceeding, however, a Florida court decided that Mrs. Graham was incapacitated, and that Luke seemed to be more concerned about her welfare. That’s when Larry decided to take matters into his own hands; he secretly moved his mother—and $350,000 of her money—to California, refused to disclose her precise location, and argued that the Florida courts no longer had jurisdiction over her, her assets or the case.

That strategy backfired. Not only did the Florida court take a dim view of what it saw as Larry’s kidnapping of his mother, it also moved to hold him in contempt of court and ordered him—and his attorneys—to disclose Ms. Graham’s whereabouts. At one of those hearings a new lawyer showed up, claiming to be Ms. Graham’s attorney and demanding that the Florida guardianship be dismissed.

Lawyer Sheridan Weissenborn of Coral Gables claimed that she had been hired by Ms. Graham, who did not want to be located, and that there was no need for either the guardianship proceedings or the court’s continued appointment of a lawyer to represent Ms. Graham’s interest. At one point in the hearing Palm Beach Circuit Judge John L. Phillips announced that he would be stepping off the bench for a few minutes to give Ms. Weissenborn a chance to reflect on her position and prepare to disclose the whereabouts of her “client.” When Judge Phillips returned and Ms. Weissenborn allowed that Ms. Graham was somewhere in the Los Angeles area, Judge Phillips was not amused; he denied Ms. Weissenborn’s request to appear as counsel for Ms. Graham, held Larry in contempt and ordered Ms. Graham’s return to Florida.

The Florida Court of Appeals agreed with Judge Phillips, calling Ms. Weissenborn’s position “patently frivolous.” “If a person could secrete the incapacitated ward away to another state and thereby cause termination of the guardianship, the entire purposes of having a guardianship procedure would be nullified,” said the appellate court. Guardianship of Graham, August 1, 2007.

Florida law explicitly requires court approval before a guardianship ward may be moved outside the state. Arizona and most other states do not have such a provision. Nevertheless, it is hard to see how Larry’s self-help approach would have benefited him under Arizona’s—or any other state’s—laws and procedures. As one Florida legal commentator (Juan Antunez, writing in the Florida Probate Litigation Blog) notes: "in contested guardianship proceedings, always expect the unexpected...if the other side goes completely crazy, remember the trial court's contempt powers."

Note: After this article was published, the Florida Court of Appeals revisited the Graham case in a follow-on opinion, with a surprising reversal of fortunes for Laurence Graham, if not for Betty Graham. Our report of the follow-up case: Interstate Guardianship Fight Results in Surprising Dismissal.

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