Guardianship News:

Texas: Analysis of how a widow has been victimized with help of Texas’ Chief Probate Judge

Texas Chief Probate Judge Guy Herman, as seen in this 2004 photo taken while Judge Herman was lobbying to create a county-wide Hospital District Texas Chief Probate Judge Guy Herman, as seen in this 2004 photo taken while Judge Herman was lobbying to create a county-wide Hospital District

Referring to the shocking and sad story of yet another widow having all her inheritance from her husband stolen from her by Texas’ Chief Probate Judge, we provide the following analysis:

From Texas Probate Code, the following information on when & who assigns a Statutory Probate Judge to a particular case:

III. CURRENT JURISDICTIONAL PROVISIONS OF THE PROBATE CODE:

. ESTATE PROVISIONS:

1. Tex. Prob. Code Ann. § 4:

The county court shall have the general jurisdiction of a probate court. It shall probate wills, grant letters testamentary and of administration, settle accounts of personal representatives, and transact all business appertaining to estates subject to administration, including the settlement, partition, and distribution of such estates.

. Tex. Prob. Code Ann. § 5:

(a) The district court shall have original control and jurisdiction over executors and administrators under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

(b) In those counties where there is no statutory probate court, county court at law or other statutory court exercising the jurisdiction of a probate court, all applications, petitions and motions regarding probate and administrations shall be filed and heard in the county court, except that in contested probate matters, the judge of the county court may on his own motion (or shall on the motion of any party to the proceeding, according to the motion) request as provided by Section 25.0022, Government Code, the assignment of a statutory probate judge to hear the contested portion of the proceeding, or transfer the contested portion of the proceeding to the district court, which may then hear contested matter as if originally filed in district court. The county court shall continue to exercise jurisdiction over the management of the estate with the exception of the contested matter until final disposition of the contested matter is made by the assigned judge or the district court…..

Sure enough, when you look at the Titus County court docket for Case No P05888 (Login or create a user account, enter “P05888” under Case Number & be sure to change the drop down to “Probate”), our old friend Texas’ Chief Probate Judge Guy Herman is at the heart of this troubling case, along with Titus County Judge Brian Lee.

And how does Titus County Judge Brian Lee involve Texas’ Chief Probate Judge Guy Herman?  By having a contested portion of the Will.  How do lawyers create contested Wills? The same way unscrupulous attorney(s) create Guardianships: The unscrupulous lawyer(s) find disgruntled family member(s) and use the disgruntled family member(s) to initiate the legal proceedings.  Once the true heir(s) and/or the executor/executrix objects to this perversion of the Will’s stated intent – voilà – a contested Will is created and equally voilà – in Texas, a contested Will allows the Chief Statutory Probate Judge – none other than Guy Herman himself – to become involved in a county that’s not one of the Chief  Statutory Probate Judge’s 18 most-populous counties that he already controls.

How did Guy Herman amass this kind of power?  Through Herman’s writing & lobbying for statutes that created the new role of Texas’ Chief Stautory Probate Judge as part of the 2013 Texas Bar re-write of the Estates Code, and it’s companion Chapter, the Texas Government Code.

Guy Herman is “elected” to be Travis County’s (Austin, TX) Probate judge by the registered voters of Travis County, if elected is what you want to call how Judge Herman was returned to the court in 2010 (5th term) and 2014 (6th term.) In both 2010 & 2014 Judge Herman “ran” unopposed in the Travis County Democratic Primary elections, assuring that Herman would be the Democratic candidate for Travis County Probate Judge. But Judge Herman had no Republican opponent in either 2010 or 2014 so by “running” unopposed in the Democratic Party Primary in the Spring, Judge Herman was guaranteed election in the Fall. Great way to escape all scrutiny by the only group of voters eligible to elect Travis County’s probate judge.

Now, especially after Texas’ 2013 Estates Code over-haul, it’s as simple as stealing candy from a baby, stealing property from a widow, if you are a probate judge. And Texas’ Chief Statutory Probate Judge is reportable to NO OTHER COURT OF LAW – not even the Texas Statue Supreme Court.  And not the US Federal Court system since Probate Courts are Courts of Equity and fall under the Judiciary Act of 1789 which specifically excludes all matters involving Courts of Equity from being appealed to Federal Courts.

You can watch & hear Judge Guy Herman then decide who Judge Herman is more concerned about: himself & his fellow judges, or their captive Wards, by watching Herman’s 10 minute testimony, filmed in May 2015 in front of the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee. In this 10 minute testimony Judge Herman, a sitting judge, lobbies the Texas Senate, urging them to pass a HB 1438, a bill under which Judge Herman will then adjudicate his cases.  This is completely unconstitutional (against BOTH Texas and the US Constitutions) but hey, who’s gonna stop a judge? There is no one; all the attorneys on all sides have to acquiesce to a Judge’s authority, no matter how abusive a Judge wields his authority.

Judges are not effectively accountable to any independent group, if one existed, to review judges and their decisions, especially in the high number of cases of judicial administration (guardianship, probate of wills, receivership) become highly adversarial, which provide lucrative attorneys’ fees, often with cases ongoing for years, especially when the family has wealth.  There is virtually ZERO prosecution of any judges, even when their misconduct is blatant.

Titus County Judge Brian Lee first came to our attention in the appalling guardianship proceedings he conducted against Mt Pleasant, TX resident Dr. Mike Reichert, which we have covered here, and here. Evidently Titus County is one of Texas’ 254 counties that appear to funnel their wealthier residents’ estates to Austin, for the Chief Probate Judge’s adjudication.