From Texas to Massachusetts: For Love or Money, Who Decides If You Can Decide?
Family care and inheritance issues can get ugly, fast. The late Perry Whatley's story dramatically illustrates this point. Whatley, at age 82, married his companion and caregiver. Whatley's niece and his new bride (note, now his sole heir) both sought to make decisions abou Whatley's care and his fortunes. Eventually their dispute lands in probate court.
Whatley was summonsed to a probate competency hearing. Instead of defending his competence in court, however, Whatley took flight abandoning his home and $2,000,000 in savings. The full story spanning Whatley's trial and tribulations from Texas to Massachusetts is reported in Lise Olsen's Houston Chronicle article, Perry Whatley battles probate court to the end. [When probate court threatened to take away his assets, Perry Whatley gave up and fled and ultimately died far from his home.]
