Attorney Michael Harvey Gertner's Legal Cases

Probate

Carifa v. Daniels, Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Probate Division, Case No. 566627A

Jan 06, 2015

OUTCOME: The result was a six-figure settlement for the amount that rightfully belonged to our client

In 2014, our client's mother passed away, triggering certain provisions of a trust that she had created during her lifetime. The trust listed her two children, our client and her brother (the defendant ... ), as beneficiaries, with the brother as trustee. It instructed the trustee to distribute the trust assets upon the mother's death. However, the defendant trustee (brother) failed to distribute any assets at the time of death. Mike filed a lawsuit against the trustee in the Probate court and successfully mediated the case.

Probate

Bokemper v. Farmers New World Life Insurance, 10 CV 08 11569

Sep 11, 2012

OUTCOME: Fully favorable to our client

We represented a widow who was cheated out of her proceeds from a life insurance policy held by her late husband. He was diagnosed with pancreatic and lung cancer, and approximately one week prior to h ... is death, the beneficiaries of his insurance policy were changed from our client to the half-brother of the decedent, the defendant, and two of the decedent's estranged children from a previous marriage who had resided in Germany their entire lives. Despite the hurdle of proving our case by clear and convincing evidence, which is a step above the usual "preponderance of the evidence" standard, we took the case with the utmost confidence of success. We argued that the husband lacked the mental capacity to fully understand what he was doing when the change of beneficiary form was signed. We hired two expert witnesses: forensic psychiatrist Dr. Mark Fettman and forensic handwriting expert Ms. Vickie Willard. Their testimony, along with that of the widow, was enough to overcome the defense presented by the half brother. We also discovered and proved that the beneficiaries' names were added and filed two days after he signed it.

Probate

Michael Rauh v. Joseph Rauh, et al., No. CV-2013-04-1911

N/A

OUTCOME: Settlement rightfully owed to our client

In 2000, the estate of our client's deceased father received two promissory notes in exchange for his 30 percent interest in a family business partnership, of which our client was the successor-in-inte ... rest. These notes were included in both the accounting of our client's father's estate and in his guardianship accounting. The value of these notes fluctuated, indicating that an active accounting was maintained on them. However, after our client had reached the age of the majority, he realized that he never received any payments from these notes, as its assignee. When he inquired about these notes, the attorney for the estate and the guardianship claimed that the notes actually had no value, due to an alleged indebtedness that the partnership owed on a mortgage.

Michael Harvey Gertner's Legal Cases (3)

Carifa v. Daniels, Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Probate Division, Case No. 566627A

Bokemper v. Farmers New World Life Insurance, 10 CV 08 11569

Michael Rauh v. Joseph Rauh, et al., No. CV-2013-04-1911