Can we sue a family member for having elderly sign papers after a POA was issued?

what goes around comes around

Re: the house. It is now property of the estate, and under the control of the Executor. ONLY the executor can initiate an order of eviction. Talk to the Executor, do not harass the tenant, no matter who is living there. No contact, no interference, or you may land in jail for stalking.

melissarh75, to get back to your original question, a POA can sign papers, but so can the patient until a judge in surrogate's court has declared them incompetent.

If your grandfather's house was left to 3 people, then 3 people own it. Is she one of the 3 people that the house was left to? Assuming she is 1 of the 3, the 2 other co-owners can go to the house, break a window & enter the home. The 2 other co-owners may also be able to have the 1 person thrown out, since they have majority ownership in the house. You can check with the police or a lawyer about that.

If she is not 1 of the 3 people that the house was left to, and she is living there illegally, she is trespassing & should be thrown out.

Don't go after the school or make waves with the kids----the kids didn't do anything & it will only damage them. Deal with the mother. Just remember that even if you do sue her, you can't get blood from a stone. If she has nothing, you're not going to collect any $$$$ from her.

I completely understand your pain and your anger. I urge you to drop the idea of going to court. It will cost you a fortune and really, from what you've said you have no legal case. We just ended a long court battle to protect my mother-in-law (who was tricked into signing over a new POA to a son who wanted her money) and while we won, I do NOT recommend taking this step. Believe me, I've written an entire book about the dysfunctional family so I know how anger takes over and how much you want them to pay for their despicable acts. But I hope you can find a better way to cope. In the meantime if the estate matter is in the courts, you may have a chance to tell your side then. Good luck. I feel for you. These situations are awful. If you can write that might help you process your feelings. Tales From the Family Crypt: When Aging Parents Die, Sibling Rivalry Lives was my therapy! amzn/B00TWMKAIO

It sounds like she wants to keep living in the house so her children can keep going to that school district. You didn't say if she was one of the 3 people who inherited the house but that is probably her motive- she does not want it sold or she wants part of the money if it is sold. It sounds like there could be some sort of family mediation to come up with a compromise. The stronger the emotions, the more the legal fees are going to cost.

Sure, you can sue anyone. Just present the original POA signed by your grandfather, a doctor's letter stating what his capacity is (at the time of the grand daughter's signed papers, and the company that witnessed the signing can be held liable too. Good luck! Family law will be your best bet for an attorney, or just show your documents to the company and they can void the grand daughter's papers (perhaps).

Wait a minute. Where do the children live? Did they at that time actually live with their mother in their grampa's house? Even with dementia, it is entirely possible Grampa was not so out of it that he couldn't say who was living in his house. The person with POA was not his guardian, and really couldn't stop him from saying who was living in his house, whether she had a rent feud with one of them or not. Are you saying the children didn't live there and she "forced" him to lie and say they did?

The thing that seems questionable in all of this is getting a very sick man out of bed to do this. On the other hand, I got my very sick husband out of his hospice bed to tour the fall leaves a couple of months before he died, so it is hard to say whether that might have been a nice change of scenery for him or harmfully tiring.

I cannot imagine what on earth you could sue the BOE for. The correction for what you consider their negligence would be to kick the kids out of the district schools (if they don't live in the district). But you say that isn't what you want. What do you want? Did you suffer some damage as a result of their action?

Not every family dispute needs to wind up in court!

If you do ask an attorney about suing the BOE, please come back and share what you find out. We learn from each other.

The basis of a suit is that there has been a tort (a wrong) committed and someone that needs to be made whole. The aggrieved party is the board of education. If your grandfather were alive, he might be able to sue for endangerment, but since he's dead, that tort dies with him. I don't believe that you have any legal standing in this issue. But you should feel free to ask a lawyer.

I thought there were a lot of excellent answers, all very helpful. But since no one agreed with you, I can understand why you thought otherwise.

Hope everything works out for everyone in your family.

Thanks form all the comments none helpful but thanks.

The executor has been locked out as well so we are going to court to get access to the home.

I know POA cease after he is deceased. This occurred prior to his death.

melissarh75, when you original posted "legal papers" I was thinking Wills, Trusts, POA's... not a piece of paper saying that the great-grandchildren were living at your grandfather's address.

Your authority as a POA ceased when you dad deceased. Sorry to hear that he died.

Good luck in getting this all cleaned up with your attorney. It sounds like a royal mess.

You are having a problem dealing head on with the problem you really care about, which is the house. Drop the issue of the school and suing the school board. Why sue them? That makes no sense at all. Face up to the real troublemaker. The school is just another victim, leave them alone.

To me this doesn't sound like anything a court would hear. If your father recently died, a POA is not valid anymore. The executor of the will would be the one in charge. Has the will be probated yet?

Pursuing the BOE makes no sense to me. The school was given false information. I don't think anyone ever drives out to verify addresses. The only thing I would see that would come from this is the children would be removed from the school and placed in the district where they live.

Who is the executor of the will? There is usually somewhere around a 6-month probate period. The executor probably would have been able to change the locks to protect the estate until it was settled. I can't figure out why she is suing you except maybe to stop people from entering the house or removing property. Makes no sense to me, but I think a large part of the story is missing here.

I will ask my attorney. Thanks of the comments

I am not giving the entire story so it may seem like I am over reacting. He recently died and he left the house to 3 people in the family. Since she was in the house she changed the locks and hired an attorney to sue us stating f we want access to the home we must make an appointment. She is not paying any bills but the estate is until the matter is heard before the court. I am looking to sue her but the board of education. She lied to them an they did not investigate. Yes I would like the kids to continue to go to school which we will make sure they do but she needs to learn what she is doing is not right. She has caused more drama and damage that I do onto have time to type. I just wanted to know if we have POA could we sue the Board Of Education and possible her.

Forgot to add that removing her grandfather would not be a civil offence. If it endangered him, it would be a criminal offence. She could be arrested, but not sued.

Are you serious? You would try to sue people over paperwork to let the kids go to a certain school? I agree it should not have happened, but sue over what? Your reaction is over the top and you probably need to calm yourself down and get a better perspective. What would you win in a lawsuit? Wouldn't the drama of that just make everything worse?

What would you sue FOR? What monetary damages were done? I don't see you have a civil case here. There may be a criminal case if the government wants to charge her for using erroneous information. Really, though, I don't know which family member would have any standing to sue and what monetary damage was done. You can have the school address nullified if you wanted. Why would you want that? I am baffled. It sounds like some family dysfunction going on here.

Yes I am thinking about suing her as well. She lied to the board of education before so I am thinking they should have looked into this more before allowing him to sign.

Unless the company had papers that indicated that he was not mentally competent, you probably could not sue them, but I am just guessing. I believe you could and should sue the grand-daughter. What papers did she have him sign, was it beneficiaries to her?

Yes I have the paperwork stating he has dementia. To make a long story short. My sister was staying with him and needed to use his address to register her children for schools. My aunt that has POA refused to take her to the Board of Ed until she paid some rent money that she agreed to. My sister then refused to pay the rent so she knew my aunt would not accompany her to the Board of Education. So she waited until the caregiver went in the shower and she dragged him out of his dying bed and took him to the Board of Education to sign legal documents. This happened 2 months ago. I know the papers can be declared invalid but I think the Board of Ed should have investigated this more since he could barely hold up his head was on oxygen etc.

No attorney worth their salt would ever allow a person who has severe dementia to sign any type of legal documents. Or did the grand-daughter just have her grandfather sign papers in front of someone who was a notary and a couple of witnesses? Curious why the notary and witnesses didn't stop the signing. You said a company accepted the papers. What type of company was that?

I wouldn't bother suing, but I would contact an Elder Law attorney for his/her advice. After doing an investigation, the attorney could have the current signed legal documents declared invalid. Curious, how long ago did this happen? Do you have paperwork from a doctor stating that the grandfather did have dementia?