MCL 700.1205(3)

700.1205 Discovery and remedies for fraud, embezzlement, conversion, or withholding of assets.

Sec. 1205.

(1) The court may order a person to appear before the court and be examined upon the matter of a complaint that is filed with the court under oath by a fiduciary, beneficiary, creditor, or another interested person of a decedent's or ward's trust or estate alleging any of the following:

(a) The person is suspected of having, or has knowledge that another may have, concealed, embezzled, conveyed away, or disposed of the trustee's, decedent's, or ward's property.

(b) The person has possession or knowledge of a deed, conveyance, bond, contract, or other writing that contains evidence of, or tends to disclose, the right, title, interest, or claim of the trustee, decedent, or ward to any of the trust or estate.

(c) The person has possession or knowledge of a decedent's last will.

2) If the person ordered under subsection (1) refuses to appear and be examined, or refuses to answer the interrogatories asked of the person that relate to the complaint, the judge may by warrant commit the person to the county jail to remain in custody until that person submits to the order of the court.

(3) If fraud is perpetrated in connection with a proceeding or in a statement filed under this act or if fraud is used to avoid or circumvent the provisions or purposes of this act, a person injured by the fraud may obtain appropriate relief against the perpetrator of the fraud or restitution from a person, other than a bona fide purchaser, that benefited from the fraud, whether innocent or not. An action under this subsection shall be commenced within 2 years after the discovery of the fraud, but an action shall not be brought against a person that is not a perpetrator of the fraud later than 5 years after the time of the fraud's commission. This section does not affect a remedy relating to fraud perpetrated against a decedent during his or her lifetime that affects the succession of the decedent's estate.

(4) If a person embezzles or wrongfully converts a decedent's property before letters of authority are granted, or refuses, without colorable claim of right, to transfer possession of the decedent's property to the personal representative upon demand, that person is liable in an action brought by the personal representative for the benefit of the estate for double the value of the property embezzled, converted, or withheld.

History: 1998, Act 386, Eff. Apr. 1, 2000
Popular Name: EPIC

The Hook - MCL 700.7604

This statute is a statute that was applicable when Bill Johnson passed away December 16, 2016, and when Ralph Siddell passed away on August 30, 2019. The statute permits a trustee to distribute assets from a trust within six months of sending the notice.
The statute does not limit the notice to only qualified trust beneficiaries,
but to any person. "Person" is defined at MCL 700.1106(o) - "Person" means an individual or an organization.

The statute -- since updated but still defective to allow concealment -- stated in 2016/2019:

MCL 700.7604

Proceeding to contest validity of revocable trust; limitation; distribution of property; liability.

(1) A person may commence a judicial proceeding to contest the
validity of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death within the earlier of the following:

(a) Two years after the settlor's death.

(b) Six months after the trustee sent the person a notice informing the person of all of the following:

(i) The trust's existence.

(ii) The date of the trust instrument.

(iii) The date of any amendments known to the trustee.

(iv) A copy of relevant portions of the terms of the trust that describe or affect the person's interest in the trust, if any.

(v) The settlor's name.

(vi) The trustee's name and address.

(vii) The time allowed for commencing a proceeding.

THE CONCEALMENT

MCL 700.1102
mandates the application of statutory definitions to
MCL 700.7604(1).

The relevant portions of the definitions necessary to properly
construe MCL 700.7604(1)(b) are:

• MCL 700.7103(n) -- "Trust instrument" means a governing instrument that contains the "terms of the trust," including any amendment to a term of the trust.

• MCL 700.1107(n) -- "Trust" includes, but is not limited to, an express trust, private or charitable, with additions to the trust, wherever and however created.

• MCL 700.1107(k) -- "Terms of a trust" or "terms of the trust" means the manifestation of the settlor's intent regarding a trust's provisions as expressed in the trust instrument or as may be established by other evidence that would be admissible in a judicial proceeding.

It is documented that when attorney Jeffrey Helder of Cunningham & Dalman sent the notice to the beneficiaries by U.S. Mail on September 24, 25 and October 24, 2019, on behalf of David Heilman, Trustee, Helder omitted critical material information from Ralph's Trust Instrument that the beneficiaries were entitled to know -- information from the original creating document in the original creating document dated November 10, 1998, in the February 2004 amendment, the 2006 amendment and the 2012 amendment. This was to conceal Heilman's disqualification as trustee under MCL 700.7303(d) - a statute that prohibits a trustee from serving if there is a conflict with a trust beneficiary.

On November 15, 2019, Jeffrey Helder transmitted an email to Neil Jansen of MikaMeyer, Linda's attorney at that time responding to Linda's request for Ralph's Trust. The response was false and misleading to conceal her interests under the 2012 Amendment. Unfortunately, Neil Jansen relied on Helder's misrepresentation, and failed to press him further whether Linda possessed an interest in any other amendment to Ralph's Trust.

Linda Smith filed a complaint against David Heilman in March of 2020 in the Allegan County Probate Court. Heilman retained attorneys Robert D. Brower and Angela M. Caulley of Miller Johnson who concealed Linda's litigation from beneficiaries by circumventing the notice provisions of MCL 700.1403(c)(i), MCR 5.102, and MCR 5.120.

On July 20, 2020, Robert Brower and David Heilman signed responses to interrogatories under the penalty of perjury and transmitted the responses via U.S. Mail and email that claimed at Ralph's death he had no living relatives. Heilman seemed to forget that Kirk was alive and well and that he had been communicating with him by text message.

On December 17, 2020, Linda's lawyer, Neil Jansen, disclosed to Linda the 2012 Amendment to Ralph's Trust. What we don't know is when Neil Jansen obtained that document.

At deposition on December 18, 2020, via the internet, David Heilman made a number of false representations, including his ridiculous story that Ralph relinquished his parental rights for Kirk, Kirk was adopted, and Ralph did not have a son -- when his estate documents clearly identified Kirk as "my son."

The scheme broke lose in 2021, when Linda Smith (who suspected David Heilman was not being honest) contacted Kirk. She explained to him her lawsuit, and what David Heilman has said about him.

After that, Brower and Caulley misled the probate court by omitting controlling legal authority that includes MCL 700.7303(d) (trustee disqualification for conflicts), MCL 700.1403(b)(ii)(D) (jurisdictional defects for conflicts), misled the court on the construction of MCL 700.7604(1)(b) by omitting the statutory definitions, claimed Kirk and Linda were not entitled to statutory tolling under MCL 700.1205(3), and that the notice under 7604(1)(b) was sufficient to bar trust contests for elder financial exploitation of Ralph Siddell on March 8, 2017, fraud and undue influence when he signed the amendment to his trust that deceptively benefited Edward Jones IAR George Alan Stoutin and David R. Heilman who knew that Ralph received personal care defined under MCL 750.145m(m) that included cognitive supervision from Denise Teunis, and that Ralph was a vulnerable adult under MCL 750.145m(u)(i) and (iii) and MCL 750.174a(15)(c) who was vulnerable to exploitation under MCL 400.11(f).

Based upon documents, it is alleged that the entire Michigan Judiciary and the Charitable Trust Division for the State of Michigan not failed Bill and Ralph, but also the intended beneficiaries including Bill's beloved sister, Linda Smith and their church All Saints Episcopal Church.

It is documented that the August 29, 2012 Trust Amendment to Ralph's Trust named Linda Smith, All Saints Episcopal Church, Wings of Hope Hospice, Hospice of Hollan, Animal Placement Bureau and Harbor Humane Society. Applying the definitions mandated by MCL 700.1102, these beneficiaries were entitled to know this relevant information after Ralph's death.