Frank v. Guardianship of Muriel Frank
The Fourth District reversed orders declaring a ward incapacitated-appointed plenary professional guardian, holding the circuit court bypassed the mandatory less-restrictive-alternative sequencing of section 744.331(6)(b) and failed to make contemporaneous, factually supported findings that the ward's preneed/advance directives naming her daughter were contrary to the ward's best interests under section 744.312(1). The court also held the ward's death did not moot the appeal because the property guardian had engaged in significant transactions (a $700,000 non-arm's-length home sale) and fee litigation continued, and that the trial court denied due process by imposing an arbitrary evidentiary cutoff at the date of the original appointment during the 2024 rehearing. All derivative orders, including the sale of the home and fee awards, were reversed.
Key facts
- Frank (ward) was declared incapacitated and a plenary professional guardian was appointed by the trial court, bypassing the statutory less-restrictive-alternative analysis and without contemporaneous findings that the ward's preneed directive naming her daughter was contrary to her best interests.
- The professional guardian sold the ward's home for approximately $700,000 in a non-arm's-length transaction and engaged in significant property administration; the ward subsequently died, but fee litigation continued and derivative orders remained pending.
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Why it matters
This opinion consolidates and extends Fourth District guardianship law in three ways litigators can use: it confirms a broad mootness exception surviving a ward's death whenever the property guardian transacted… — full analysis with a trial
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