COMPENSATION DENIED, CAREGIVER

THE MERRILL LYNCH TRUST MANAGEMENT TRUSTEE’S

PROPOSAL “TO IMPOVERISH MOM”

Charging that a “highly biased and pressured” Orange County Court deprived his client of his basic probater rights and “denied him his rightful Trust compensation”, the attorney. James Bridgman, representing San Franciscan Tito Abao today petitioned for an appeal change of venue to the First Appellate District in San Francisco.

According to James Bridgman, the culprit in all this is the Merrill Lynch Trust Management Company which “blatantly disregarded the jurisdictional rights of the appellant by unceremoniously moving the lower court case to its Orange County jurisdiction, where Merrill Lynch exercises undue and uncommon influence.”  Merrill Lynch does a humongous bond business for Orange County, how can they help NOT projecting inordinate power and  influence throughout the Orange County governmental structure at every level.

At the heart of the matter is a “caregiver crisis” which, according to Bridgman “has enormous significance to thousands of others who have found themselves in the same, untenable financial tangle as Tito Abao.”  That crisis has arisen as the children of aging Americans (who are also aging) have had to choose between spending their parents’ limited finances of home healthcare or nursing home services or taking care of that parent themselves.  The fear is that there will just not be enough money to last the lifetime of the parent.

Lawrence Hall set up two Trusts in his will to take care of his wife Dolores Hall.  Mr. Abao, the natural son of Dolores Hall, by a previous marriage gave up his own job and livelihood to care for his mother.  And to protect her son’s financial future, Mrs. Hall established a labor agreement with her son in which the bulk of his wages were to be deferred to her death, to help ensure that she would never suffer the indignity of nursing home facilities private or governmental.  Now Merrill Lynch, the employee of Lawrence Hall and Dolores Hall is arguing that by not claiming compensation for his services while his mother was alive, and thus depleting the Trust, Mr. Abao is forever barred from seeking such compensation from the Trust when his mother died.  The employee, The Merrill Lynch Trust Management Company, has commandeered their employer’s, Lawrence Hall and Dolores Hall, financial resources and placed their, The Merrill Lynch Trust Management Company, own value system on how resources which do not belong to them will be distributed thus breaking Lawrence Hall’s Will and abrogating his wife Dolores Hall’s right to make a labor contract for her “health and support”.  They have done all of this on behalf of Remainder beneficiaries who had no part in the care of Mrs Dolores Hall, The University of San Francisco and The Shriner’s Hospital Group, who, by the was refused all efforts to negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement.

“WHAT DEFIES THE IMAGINATION AND MOCKS THE INTEGRITY OF THE ENTIRE PROCESS IS THAT MERRILL LYNCH ACTUALLY PROPOSES THAT MR. ABAO SHOULD HAVE SUED HIS MOTHER WHILE SHE WAS ALIVE TO OBTAIN COMPENSATION FOR HIS SERVICES TO HER - THUS RISKING HER IMPOVERISHMENT!” STATED AN “OUTRAGED” BRIDGMAN.

Mr. Abao, who was the sole caregiver of his mother, Dolores Hall.  Mother and son worked out a labor agreement which deferred his full wage to the time of her death, which was her right under the Trusts set up by her husband, Mr. Hall .....i.e..... a absolute right that her care be paid to the depletion of both Trusts, if necessary on behalf of her “health and support” (as seen in more detail earlier in this book).  According to Bridgman, Merrill Lynch, executors of the Trusts (hired by Mrs. Hall as employees), have thwarted Mr. Abao’s efforts to recover his back wages and is “punishing him for standing up for his rights”.

“Essentially - and willfully - Merrill Lynch is a 800 lb gorilla in this matter and is continuing to deprive Mr. Abao of his financial legacy under the Trust A, by stripping this account in order to pay for litigation costs involved in this matter,” reported Bridgman who is seeking a “fair, un-biased Hearing in San Francisco which is the original jurisdiction of the probate.”

Mrs. Hall hired Merrill Lynch to administer the Trust in San Francisco as of 1994 (has the employee declared himself the owner of the Trust??) with the understanding that the Trust would continue to be administered in San Francisco.  By moving the administration of the Trust to Orange County without Mrs Hall’s consent, “Merrill Lynch violated (and vacated) the original agreement as well as the wishes of the benefactor, Lawrence A. Hall (her husband), pointed out Bridgman.

When Mr. Abao contested this “unseemly and patently illegal maneuver by Merrill Lynch, the 800 lb gorilla decided the best way to punish Mr. Abao for his temerity in yelling “Foul” was by the simple expedient of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul - fleecing Trust A benefiting Mr. Abao directly to prop up Trust B, which was design to unjustly enrich The University of San Francisco and the Shriner’s Hospital Group”, Bridgman alleged in his Brief.

Indeed, as of this writing and well into the third year, since Mr. Abao’s mother’s death - “there still has been no distribution of Trust A to Mr. Abao.”  According to Bridgman, “Trust A continues to be withheld by Merrill Lynch as revenge for plaintiff daring to contest defendant’s action”, explained Bridgman.

In the meantime, Mr. Abao is left to wonder why-after giving full time to his late mother’s final years and wishes - why a major Corporate Giant Trust Administrator, Merrill Lynch is callously squeezing the financial resources out of a dutiful son with limited means trying to make a life for himself at age 65.  They, Merrill Lynch on behalf of the University of San Francisco and the Shriner’s Hospital Group have used the legal system to execute a judicial mugging (not unlike a street mugging in violation of the human rights of one of God’s children) but, they have stolen something even more precious.  They have stolen TIME, from Mr. Abao, two years of precious time in which as a healthy elderly gentleman, he might have enjoyed the last remaining years in some kind in pursuit of well deserved of enjoyment.  These going-on three years of emotional upset, economic uncertainty and anxiety have taken a significant toll on him.

Succinctly, “If Merrill Lynch’s position is supported by the Courts, all Americans will be face with a grim choice; deplete your parent’s finances to ensure you get compensation or never be compensated for caring for them full time for their life and watch someone else get the remaining money that you have worked so hard to preserve,” admonishes Bridgman. 

All Site Contents Copyright (C) Tito Abao 2002