Siblings lose bid to take charge of dad’s money
Published:Thursday | December 23, 2021 | 12:13 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Three siblings who filed a claim against their father under the Mental Health Act to get a court order to manage his financial affairs were forced to back down after a medical report showed that their dad was capable of managing his money.
The siblings, following a medical report, filed a notice of discontinuance, but their father sought to have that motion set aside, claiming that it was an abuse of process by his children, who he claimed had not complied with the court order to disclose to him all the joint accounts he had with them and their transaction.
The court ruled against him and discontinued the case.
The trio, Heather Lewis, Marcia Lewis, and Gary Lewis, who collectively filed the claim in 2016, wanted the court to appoint them to act as a committee to handle the affairs of their father, Melford Lewis.
They had also filed two amended fixed-date claim forms seeking to have the court appoint them as guardians and to have their father's current wife, Elaine, added to the claim and an order declaring that their marriage was null and void.
The amendments were filed after their father had challenged the claim, outlining, among other things in his affidavit, that he was now married and that his children, therefore, were not the proper persons to make such an application.
However, Justice Stephane Jackson-Haisley, in October 2019, ordered that Melford be examined by an independent doctor.
Consequently, Dr Aggrey Irons, in his report submitted a month later, said: “Mr Lewis continues to be an elderly man who shows no evidence of severe psychiatric disorder,” adding that the family patriarch could handle his own affairs “with the appropriate cooperation of all his family members”.
During that time, Melford also filed a notice for application seeking information on all the joint accounts that he maintained with his three children.
He alleged in the accompanying affidavit that his children had abused a power of attorney he had entrusted them with.
Melford also filed two separate applications to strike out the claim.
But Justice Yvonne Brown, following the medical report, made an interim order for Melford to have conduct and control of all his affairs, including his financial assets, until the determination of the amended fixed-date claim form filed and for his children to submit an affidavit listing all his assets under their control.
A hearing date for the amended claim form was set for March, 24-25, 2020.
The children, however, filed a motion in December 2019 to discontinue all the claims. Their father in response filed a notice of application to set aside the notice for discontinuance.
Melford also sought an order from the court to preserve the 2020 dates for the hearing.
Attorneys-at-law Hugh Small, QC, and Chadwyck Goldsmith represented Melford, and attorneys-at-law Gordon Steer and Judith Cooper argued on the children's behalf.